History of the eighteenth century and of the nineteenth till the overthrow of the French empire. With particular reference to mental cultivation and progress

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7D /o^

H i Sf OR] GAbipC LET^I

i

HISTORY

OF THl

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

AND OP THB

NINETEENTH

TILL THE OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH EMPIRE.
WITH PAXTICULAK RBnHBNCB TO

mental cultivation and progress.
By R C. SCHLOSSER,

PRIVY COUNCILLOR, KNIGHT OF THB GRAND DUCAL ORDER OF THB ZAHRINOEN

LION OF BADEN, MEMBER OF THB ROTAL DANISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

OF COPENBAGBN, OF THE SOCIETY OF LITERATDRB OF LEYDEN AND

OTHER LBARNED SOCIETIES, AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN

THE UNIVERSITY OF HBIDBLBBRO.

TRANSLATED

By D. DAVISON, M.A.

VOL, VL

LONDON:
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 186 STRAND.

1845.

KP3

UNIVERSITYI
LIBRARY

FKINTBD BY BICHARD AMD JOHN B. TAYLOR,
RBD LION COURT, TLBBT 8TRBBT.

PREFACE.

Thb author has written a preface to the present volumei
chiefly explanatory of the relation which the present
form of his work bears to his former publications on the
same subject. This preface would be in a great measure
unintelligible and uninteresting to any but his German
readers : it contains however some matters of general
interest, of which the translator thinks it his duty to
take notice, especially as they are calculated to give
clearer views of the nature and objects of the whole work^
of the author's ideas of the value and uses of History, of
the special objects contemplated, and of the point of
view from which the subject has been considered.

After the author had devoted very many years, not
only to the study but also to the composition of History,
when he had brought his work down to a comparatively
recent period, he made two journeys to Paris, in order
to obtain that information from personal investigation
which books cannot give. There, in the very seat of
the Revolution, he had the opportunity of discussing
the events of the immediately preceding period with the
very spectators of and actors in the Revolution, the
older republicans and the partisans of the Emperor. He
mentions individuals whose names are well known and
appreciated by his countrymen, but are here quite im-«

IV PREFACE.

known ; the aged and very active diplomatist Reinhard
being perhaps the only individual of whom any mere
English politician has ever heard. In this way the au-
thor arrived at conclusions more personal than it is usual
for learned historians to form, and this has given to the
present as well as to all his works that subjective cha-
racter by which they are characterized. Having thus
acquired his knowledge, it became the matter of his
subsequent professional labours. For twelve years he
lectured on the history of the age at his own university,
Heidelberg, and the present volumes contain the sub-
stance of those lectures extracted from his papers.

Our readers will be reminded that the learned pro-
fessor of history at Cambridge, the highly esteemed and
very liberal Professor Smythe, had already anticipated
the German Professor in the publication of his lectures,
which will supply matter for comparison.

In addition to these facts, personal to the author, the
readers of this work must never lose sight of the politi-
cal condition of Germany, of the dilSiculty of forming a
public opinion in a country where reflections on political
science are confined vrithin a narrow range by an active
censorship of the press, and of the efforts which are
everywhere being made to create a national feeling
among all the different states which compose the vast
territory denominated Grermany. This is a condition in
which it is of vast importance to the present and coming
generation that the cause of rational liberty should be
advocated, and its principles taught and enforced by men
of sober minds and enlarged views, who are able to show
their accordance with the facts of history and expe-
rience.

The excesses of " Young Germany," shortly after the
emancipation of the country from the French yoke, sup*

PREFACE. V

plied too plausible an excuse for that jealousy of popular
feeling, which produced devastations and consequences
which have not yet wholly disappeared. The Germans
are a race of thinkers, and the governments are in so far
partakers of the national character, that thinking, and
the scientific and learned expression of thought are not
objected to, if care be taken not to give to that expres*
sion too popular a character, so as to spread a knowledge
of public rights and the just claims of the people amongst
the public at large.

In Prussia the bold and hazardous experiment is tried,
of rendering the highest degree of mental cultivation
subservient to what is regarded as the cause of monar.
chical power and the interests of the state.

Whilst in other parts of Germany, in Austria and
elsewhere, the example of Italy is followed, and the re-
pression of knowledge is- attempted to be maintained as
the true basis of monarchical domination, Prussia has
hazarded the experiment of promoting men of recog-
nized pre-eminence in every department of science and
learning to the highest dignities of the state and to the
first offices in her national universities, hoping thereby
to engage the highest talents in the country in the main-
tenance of the existing institutions of the state. We
may, without apprehension, await the issue of this ex-
periment, rejoicing that it is made, in a firm belief that
it will bear its fruit in its season, and that the develop-,
ment of the practical industry and commercial resources
of the country will at no distant period form a founda-
tion for a nobler political structure.

As long as the Government, that is, the King, exer-
cises absolute dominion over the whole body of pub-
lic instructors in the primary, secondary and higher
schools, and as long as all men of education, to whatever

VI PREFACE.

profession they belong, are obliged to look for their
subsistence to an application of their talents conform-
able to the wishes of the higher powers, this theory
and condition of things may be for a while maintained,
especially as it is aided by the constitution of the Ger-
manic Confederation, which is bound to suppress, and in
the minor states does immediately and effectually sup-
press, the smallest manifestations of popular feeling, and
crushes in the bud every attempt on the part of the peo-
pie to assume or exercise any considerable share of poli-
tical power.

Knowledge however is power, even in a political sense.
There is a great fermentation in the public mind, the
elements of which are no longer to be reduced to a state
of repose by permission to speculate ad infinitum upon
metaphysics, to enliven the dry bones of antiquity, and to
expend all those energies in investigating Hebrew roots
and Greek particles, many of which should be directed to
living and substantial interests, and to the improvement
of the physical and moral condition of themselves and
their fellow-countrymen. It is impossible too highly
to estimate the splendid talents, laborious research and
indefatigable industry of German scholars, and I should
be among the last to undervalue their vast contributions
to the sum of knowledge and the new lights which they
have shed upon the paths of mental and physical science ;
but it has always struck me as a most melancholy spec-
tacle to contemplate such men and such minds cramped
in their fair proportions, forced into a most unnatural
position, entombed as it were in their libraries amongst
the remains of the dead, to prepare and digest further
monuments of learning for the benefit of those who are
to succeed them in the same dry fields of speculation or
research, without being suffered to enliven or refresh

PRBFACB, VU

the living generations of men, by the partial application
of their great powers and knowledge to the promotion
of their highest and best present interests, political and
moral. If the translator might venture to speak the
results of his own experience and observatioui he would
say, that it is quite impossible justly to estimate the
value of free political institutions, their influence upon
the mind and character of a nation, their moral effects
and elevating tendencies, without having witnessed the
retarding effects and repressive influence of power in
countries where they do not exist. The possession of such
institutions and advantages lies at the basis of all national
greatness. England possesses perhaps as full a practical
enjoyment of liberty of opinion and action as is com-
patible with a high state of social advancement and
order, and in obeying the necessary restrictions of the
law. Englishmen feel that they only obey the emana-
tions of the public will, digested and reduced to the
forms of law, for the public good. Whilst the people of
Germany obey their princes from constraint, or some-
times from personal affection, Englishmen honour their
sovereign as their sovereign deserves, respect the privi-
leges of the crown, and watch over the rights of the
people, but yield an unreserved obedience to the law.

It is not therefore easy to overrate, in relation to the
present condition of the nation, the importance of a Ger-
man historian, whose character, acquirements, authority
and position enable him boldly to speak his convic-
tions to his fellow-countrymen. Such is the case with
Professor Schlosser. He is above and beyond the reach
of all those petty annoyances, or even serious dangers,
to which others have been or may be exposed; venerable
by his age, his character, and his exalted reputation,
he speaks with all the earnestness and devotedness of

Vm PRBFACE.

a man, whose mission it is to leave a noble inheritance
to his nation, of the fruits of his learning, experience
and indefatigable labour. He is one who, out of the
richness of his stores and the fullness of his reflections,
dwells and descants on the grand events of history as they
illustrate the great phases of the human character, the
progress or retrogradation of civilization and knowledge,
or bear upon the promotion of the well-being and hap-
piness of mankind. Those who look for a mere history
of details, a chronological account of battles fought and
victories won, speculations upon curious questions of
genealogical research or abstract theories of government,
will be disappointed ; whilst those who consider the
author's object and design, and look upon History from
a higher point of view, will find much worthy of their
serious and deliberate contemplation.

In his preface the author states, that it had been his
intention to have left for posthumous publication the
present and the succeeding volume, which will complete
the work, but that he has been induced to change his
opinion from the earnest desires expressed by those
whose judgement he values, and the public, for whom
he writes, and to publish them during his lifetime.

He concludes his preface by observing, — "The facts
which he reports do not rest upon hearsay ; every one
who is acquainted with history will easily discover whence
they are taken, whilst to others it is a matter of indiffer-
ence, and he makes no claim to discoveries ; the sub-
ject at issue is one of judgement and views. His opinions
and views the author has formed from the results of his
own observation and experience during a long life,
amongst very various classes of men and in very different
situations. Every reader and every writer brings a party
or a system with him, and every reader sympathises

PRBFACB. IX

with an author merely in so far as the author expresses
and maintains the opinion of the party ¥rith which the
reader is connected. A writer therefore who strives merely
to explain and justify his own views^ is doubly bound to
show, that he knows how to distinguish between views
and fancies. It is not granted to every one to be able to
make good his own views, and the opinions of different
classes of men rest upon very different foundations.
Young people and systematic writers ground theirs upon
systems and doctrines ; elder men and men of business,
trained in the school of experience, upon observation
and knowledge of life.

'' To this last observation the author requests atten-
tion, as many are accustomed to require, from a printed
book, only things which may be blindly believed and
learned by heart ; whereas in the author's judgement, a
book should be such an exposition of facts and opinions
as may lead others to think and judge for themselves.
Nothing therefore is more ridiculous than petty criti-
cism and abuse of a writer who considers a subject only
from one point of view. It is open to others to give an
opposite one: the nation will be the judge, and it and its
hterature will be the gainers if both are equally success-
ful. There are however persons who seem to esteem it
an honour to be at least the barking dogs of literature,
although they are not furnished with the proper teeth to
bite."

The translator*has only to say respecting himself, that
with a consciousness of many imperfections, he has done
his best to be faithful, and regards his fidelity as the best
proof which he can give of his great respect for a friend,
whom he has so much reason to esteem and honour.

The Translator.

London, August 1st, 1845.

CONTENTS OP VOLUME VI.

FIFTH PERIOD op the EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
FIRST DIVISION.

FROM THE TSAR 1788 TILL THE EKD OP THE FIRST (CONSTITUENT)
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY^ AND TILL THE SECOND PARTITION OP PO-
LAND.

CHAPTER I.

PRANCE.

Page

Sbct. I. — From the Disturbances on account of the Cours PI£-

nieres and of the Grands Baillages in 1788 till the 12th of
July 1 789 1

Sect. II.— France from the 13th of July 1789 till the 14th of
July 1 790 55

Sect. III. — From the Festival of the Federation on the 14th of
July 1790 till the Opening of the Legislative Assembly in Oc-
tober 1791 92

CHAPTER II.

THE MONARCHICAL STATES OP EUROPE TILL THE WAR OP THE
PRENCH REVOLUTION.

Sect. I. — Sweden and Russia till the War with Turkey in 1788. 118

Sect. II. — Sweden and Russia till the Peace of Werela, 138

Sect. III.— Austria and Russia, and their War with the Turks. . 159

Sect. IV. — Belgian and Polish Revolutions 176

a. Belgium 176

b. Poland 205

SECOND DIVISION.

FROM THE TIME OP THE COALITION AGAINST THE NEW CONSTITU*
TION OF FRANCE TILL THE TRUCE OF UDINEy WHICH PRECEDED
THE PEACE OF CAMPO FORMIO.

CHAPTER I.

PRANCE, AUSTRIA, PRUSSIA, ENGLAND TILL THE ESTABLISHMENT OP
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

Sect. L — France till the Appointment of a Girondist Ministry. . 259

XU CONTENTS OF VOLUME VI.

Sect. II. — Relations of the European Powers till the Declaration

of War on the part of France against the Emperor 280

Sect. III. — Preparations for the War of the Revolution 305

Sect. IV. — History of Germany and France till the Institution of
the French Republic 320

CHAPTER II.

EUROPEAN WAR AND INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE FROM SEPTEM-
BER 1792 TILL THE TRUCE OP UDINE, 1797.

Sect. I. — Prussia, Austria (Netherlands), Germany till the Flight
of Dumourier, and the Participation of England and Holland
in the War 383

Sect. II. — History of the internal Movements in France, from the
Establishment of the Republic till the Fall of Robespierre, St.
Just and Couthon, the Triumvirate of the Reign of Terror . . 428

a. First Period : till the New Organization of the Committee

of Public Welfare 428

b. Second Period. — From the Establishment of the Committee

of Public Welfare till the Ninth Thermidor of the Second
year of the Republic, that is, till the 27th of July 1794 451

Sect. III. — European Coalition to promote the Objects of the
English Plutocracy till the end of 1794 521

Sect. IV.— History of the years 1795—1797 556

a. History of the French Convention from the 27th of July

1794 till its Dissolution in October 1795 556

b. History of the Events of the War and Peace till April

1 797 594

1. Landing in the Bay of Quiberon. — Conclusion of Peace. . 594

2. Holland War in Germany in the year 1795 till 1796 . . 611

3. Summary View of the Victorious Undertakings of the
French in Italy, which led to the Preliminaries of Leoben
and to a Peace 634

Note. — In one or two instances the Translator perceives that he has
used the German names of places in the Low Countries, better known
in England by their French names, as Herzogenbusch for Bois-le-duc,
Doomick for Taumay,

HISTORY

OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
FIFTH PERIOD.

FIRST DIVISION.

FROM THE YEAR 1788 TILL THE END OF THE FIRST (CONSTI-
TUENT) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY. AND TILL THE SECOND
PARTITION OF POLAND.

CHAPTER I.
FRANCE.

§1.

FROM THE DI8TUBBANCEB ON ACCOUNT OF THB COURS PL£*
NITRES AND OF THB GRANDS BAILLAGES IN l/SS TILL
THB 12th of JULY 1789.

In April 17B8^ the prime minister Lom^nie de Brienne and
Lamoignon, minister of justice^ su^ested and recommended to
the good king Louis the propriety of substituting what was
called a cour pUmire for the parliament, and thus destroying its
political influence by a coup d*^tatj and at the same time of di-
minishing its powers as a judicial tribunal by the erection of
ffrands baillages. The adoption of this advice caused a commo-
tion throughout the whole kingdom^ and led to an .immediate
convocation of a general assembly of the estates. At the end
of April 1788, Duval d'Epresmenil was instrumental in causing
the parliament to take those unexampled steps which led to the
convocation of the assembly of the estates. This was the same
individual who in 1789 was one of the first to be threatened by
the people as an aristocrat^ and went in continual danger of
losing his life from the popular indignation. D'Epresmenil had

VOL, VI. B

2 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

by artifice obtained a copy of the royal ordinances, which were
printed with so much secresy that the royal printing-office was
guarded like a prison, and none of the workmen were allowed
to leave the premises. Having secured the document, he pre-
sented himself in parliament with the ordinances in his hand,
on the 27th of April read them in the assembly, and pre-
vailed upon the meeting to adopt a series of counter-statements
of a description quite unexampled. This remonstrance, which
was first put into the hands of the king on the 4th of May, was
couched in a revolutionary tone, and we are therefore accus-
tomed to regard the presentation of this paper to the king as
the commencement of the revolution.

There are three things referred to in this document, which
appear to us of especial importance in reference to the general
fermentation which was at that time taking place in the public
mind. First, at the conclusion of the remonstrance, the ancient
and long-foi^otten constitution of the kingdom and rights of the
people are boldly reclaimed. It is expressly stated that France
was not, in reality, what it was at that time considered to be, —
a military monarchy, but that the estates and the parliament
formed as essential parts of the constitution as the king*. Se-
condly, the parliament did not satisfy itself by merely handing
in this remonstrance to the king, but appealed to the people.
The protest against the infringement of its own rights and those
of the public was accompanied by an address to the French
people on the fundamental laws of the monarchy f. Thurdly,

* The conclusion of the remonstrance, already referred to in the preceding
volume, runs as follows : " Chaque province a demand^ un parleroent pour la
defense de ses droits particuliers : ces droits ne sont que des chimeres, ces

rirlemens ne sont pas des vaines institutions. Autrement^ le roi pourrait dire
la Bretagne, Je vous 6te vos ^tats ; h la Guyenne, J'abroge vos capitulations ;
au peuplede B6arn» Je n'entenda plus vous prater serment ; ii la nation m^me,
Je veux changer celui du sacre ; & toutes les provinces, Vos libert^s sont des
chatnes pour le l^gislateur, vos parlemens I'obligent k varier ses volont^s,
j'abolis vos liberty, je d^truis vos parlemens. II est certain, qu'alors la vo-
lont^ du roi pourrait dtre uniforme."

t " Les lois fondamentales/' says the parliament, "embrassent et consa-
crent : 1. Le droit de la maison r^gnante au tr6ne de mftle en miLle, par
ordre de primogeniture. 2. Le droit de la nation d'accorder librement des sub*
sides par I'organe des ^tats-g^n^raux r^guli^rement convoqu^s et composes.
3. Les coutumes et capitulations des provinces. 4. L'inamovibilit6 des ma-
gistrats. 5. Le droit des cours de verifier dans chaque province les v(dont^s
du roi et de n'en ordonner I'enregistrement qu'autant qu elies sont conformes
aux lois constitutives de la province ainsi qu'aux lois fondamentales de T^tat.
6. Le droit de chaque citoyen de n'dtre jamais traduit, en aucunemanidre, par
devant d'autres juges que ses juges naturels, qui sont ceux que la loi d^signe }

§ I.] FRANCR TILL JULY l789« 3

the parliament offered a formal resistance to the royal com-
mands^ to which they were influenced by D^Epresmenil, who
held the printed ordinances of the king in his hand. On his
recommendation^ the assembly solemnly bound itself by an oath
to refu$e obedience to the ordinances which were exhibited in
its presence. This oath was taken by the whole assembly,
which was at other times so cautious ; on the same evening on
which the deputation was sent to Versailles to the king, and
even before the return of those members of whom it was com-
posed, they bound themselves to refuse every description of
reformation which should emanate from the ministerial press,
and resolved to peril their lives rather than yield obedience to
the ordinances of the king.

The whole of the chambers, which were bound by the same
oath, proceeded to declare their sittings permanent; a step which,
in the following years in the assembly of the states-general, was
always the foreboding of dreadful storms. Having in a bold
and threatening spirit declared their sittings permanent, they
thus invested the plenai^y assembly of all the chambers with
the whole sovereign judicial power of the kingdom, and placed
themselves in hostile opposition to the legislative and execu-
tive power of the king and his ministers. The ministers made
lyEpresmenil and Goisland de Monsabert responsible for these
steps, which were taken on their advice and earnest recommen-
dation, and immediately caused decrees for their arrest to be pre-
pared. The accused took refuge in the permanent sitting of their
colleagues. This took place late in the evening, and at midnight
two battalions of grenadiers were sent against the peaceful as-
sembly, in order to compel its members to deliver up those
councillors who had fallen under the displeasure of the govern-
ment.

This commission was entrusted to Vincent d^Agoult, as cap-
tain of the guard, who was requu*ed to keep the whole assembly
in a state of imprisonment till the obnoxious individuals, with
whose persons he was unacquainted, were surrendered. His
repeated demands were unattended with success, and he at last
forced his way into the chamber in which the assembly was held,

et 7. Le droit. Bans lequel toas les autres sont inutiles, de n'etre arrdt^, par
quelqae ordre que ce soit, que pour dtre remis sans d^lai entre les mains dea
juges comp^tens. Proteste la dite cour contre toute atteinte qui seroit portee
aux principes ci-dessus exprim^s."

b2

4 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. U

accompanied by the grenadiers of the royal guards and kept the
'whole parliament in a formal state of arrest from midnight till
five o^clock in the morning. At this hour the two councillors
stepped forward in order to put an end to this state of siege^
were formally arrested^ and each was sent to a remote state-
prison. In consequence of his resolute conduct on this occa-
sion^ D^Agoult was appointed governor of the Tuileries* This
coup d^itat not only proved injurious to the government^ but in
the then existing state of affairs consummated their ruin^ be-
cause, in spite of all the means which they employed, and of the
military power to which they had had recourse, the ministry
proved imequal to carry through their plans.

On the 8th of May these hated ordinances were made public
at a bed of justice of the parliament of Paris, where no discus-
sion was allowed, and simultaneously in all the parliaments of
the kingdom. For this purpose the parliament of Paris was
summoned to Versailles, and the new ordinances were caused to
be enrolled in its minutes; the same course was afterwards
pursued in the chambers of exchequer and excise. These ordi-
nances referred to the new political body (the cour pUniire)
which was to be erected, and which assembled only once, and
to the new judicial courts with limited jurisdictions and restricted
rights (the grands baillages)^ which never came into operation at
all. The king had no sooner taken his departure from the hall
of assembly, than the parliament protested and the councillors
renewed the oath, that none of them would accept of any
office whatever in the new supreme courts. The councillors of
the chambers of excise and finance also protested, so that it
proved impossible immediately to organise the new tribunals.
The royal ordinances were in the same manner published in all
the other parliaments of the kingdom, and the grand council of
the parliament of Paris was even compelled to be present at the
first and only sitting of the new body, the cour pUniire ; all this
however merely served to show more clearly, that the spirit of
the times had become more powerful than any ancient prejudices
or traditionary usage.

The parliaments were indeed obliged to adjourn their sittings
and await the nomination of the new tribunals, and the great
council had taken its seat in the cour plAiHre^ but it never-
theless protested in all due form against the new position
which the government wished to assign it, and the various

§ I.] FRANCS TILL JULY 1789. 5

individual councillors of parliament sent in representations
complaining of the new condition in which they were placed.
In the provinces which were connected with France by trea-
ties, in virtue of which they retained the constitutional privi-
leges of particular parliaments and assemblies of their own
estates, the attempt to limit these privileges and to deprive them
of their political influence gave rise to tumults and resistance.
In Bourdeaux the people were satisfied with making a vigorous
protest against the innovations of the government ; but in Tou-
louse, where, as in Spain, every man wished to be regarded as a
nobleman, the whole population was fanatically excited against
the government. The estates of Dauphiny unhesitatingly took
part with the parliament of Grenoble, when on the 7th of June
the minister made an attempt to reduce its members to obe-
dience by the employment of two regiments of soldiers. News
of this measure adopted by the government no sooner spread
among the people, than the citizens and peasants of the sur-
rounding districts flew to arms in aid of the parliament, and
repelled force by force. Even the inferior tribunal of Paris
(the Ch&telet), which in criminal prosecutions was to supply the
place of the parliament, had recoiu'se on the 16th of May to a
very vigorous measure in opposition to the ministers of the
crown and the new arrangements. From the 20th of the same
month the ministry engaged in a violent contest with the par-
liament of Brittany and with the whole nobility of the province,
the great body of the citizens in their disputes with the nobles
having long previously sought and found the justification of all
their dislike to the privileges of the nobles in .the writings of
Franklin and Rousseau, and imbibed the democratic principles
of both. All the men of talent who were at that time distin-
guished for their eloquence and knowledge of the law in Brittany
and the Garonne, and who were most conspicuous in the courts,
acknowledged the new democratic principles of the law of na-
tions and formed a close confederacy with one another. During
the time of the parliamentary struggle of the year 1788 these
men formed the republican union, which was afterwards par-
tially designated by the name of the Gironde.

The citizens of Brittany, who afterwards continued to struggle
in favour of the new order of things till our own century against
the nobility of their province and the whole body of their de-
pendents, vassals, servants and priests, had been in a state of

6 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

bloody strife with their antagonists in 17B8, long before the
20th of May, on which an open war broke out between the par-
liament and the government. The parliament declared every
man infamous who should accept of a seat in the ctmr plinihrej
whilst the government employed military force to reduce the
parliament to obedience, and the soldiers were abused by the
populace. The whole affair appeared so serious in its aspect,
that the commander-in-chief thought it advisable to pass over
these insults and offences without attempting to avenge them.
In Rennes as well as in Nantes the disturbances continued
without interruption, and frequent collisions took place, some-
times in consequence of the disputes of the citizens with the
nobility, and sometimes in consequence of the differences be-
tween the parliament and the government.

The nobles afterwards sent twelve of their most distinguished
members to court, to protest against the abolition of the par-
liament and the violation of their constitution guaranteed by
their original compact with the kingdom. This drcumst&nce
led the government to give a public proof of their want of re-
liance on themselves and of their deficiency in energy. The
twelve deputies were arrested in Versailles and carried as pri-
soners to the Bastille ; but fifty others were no sooner afterwards
sent, than they were admitted to an audience, and the govern-
ment endeavoured to excuse themselves for having arrested the
former twelve, and immediately ordered them to be set at liberty.
Notwithstanding this event, Brittany remained in a state of un-
interrupted ferment, and the contest between the citizens and the
nobility gave Qccaaion to the formation of political clubs, which
aftierwards extended over the whole of France, but which at first
only bore the innocent name of reading societies. About the same
time, the o£Scers of the regiments which were stationed in Brit-
tany, all of whom belonged to the nobility of the province, re-
fused to. act or allow their men to be employed against the par-
liament. The members of the most distinguished families, some
of whom filled the very highest offices of honour about the
court, were distinguished on this occasion ds the founders and
promoters of this opposition on the part of the nobility against
the ministers of the crown. The indignation of the court was
chiefly directed against Boisgelin, the due de Chabot, the mar-
quis de la Fayette and the duchesse de Praslin. The first lost
his situation at court as keeper of the robes, the two others their

§ !•] FRANCE TILL JITLT 1789. 7

pensions, and the duchess was dismissed from her office of ladj
of honour. The nobility of Brittany had previously declared
every man infamous who should accept of any situation in the
new tribunals, and at a later period, no confidence was to be
placed in any native of the province. The whole body of officers
bdonging to the regiment Bassigny was dismissed; it was even
found necessary afterwards to cashier the whole corps, and at
last sixteen thousand new troops were sent into the province,
whidi notwithstanding continued in a state of resistance to the
government. The first families of the country, and all the men
of spirit and talents whom it contained, were at the head of the
movement, and encouraged the people to defend and maintain
the rights of their country. These disturbances, and sometimes
even conflicts, continued throughout the whole of the year 1788,
and in January 1789 became more vehement than ever*.

In Dauphiny, the three estates, by their unity, firmness and
bold importunity, succeeded in obtaining the restoration of ah
the' constitutional privileges which had been wrested from them
not long before the conflict betwciien the parliaments and the go-
vernment, and on this occasion they renounced the prejudices of
the middle ages, for the whole body of the three estates met in
one chamber and decided all questions by a majority of votes*
The secretary of this assembly, which was the first that was
constituted on a diflerent system frodi that of the feudal ages,
was Mounier, who became afterwards distinguished as a refor-
mer in the general estates, and finally was compelled with re-
luctance to emigrate. The general feeling among the military
in Dauphiny was the same as that exhibited in Brittany, and no
reliance could be placed by the government on their services in
any disputes with the parliaments. This fully appeared when
the commandant of the province attempted to enforce the adop-
tion of the royal ordinances upon the parliament of Grenoble.
He first endeavoured to become acquainted with the tone of feel-
ing among his troops, and learned that he could neither reckon
upon the officers nor soldiers for the fulfilment of his commands.
Paris was at that time deluged with a flood of exciting pamphlets,
many of which are now rare and only to be found in private col-

* Tlie history of the disturbances in Brittany, which are detailed at great
length by Bertrand de Moleville, will be found accurately and circumstantially
related in the ' Geschichte der Staatsveranderung in Frankreich/ &c. part ii.
pp. 147, kc* dec.

8 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

lections in Paris and Versailles as rarities. One of them which
fell under our notice in such a collection struck us as being very
remarkable^ because as early as 1788^ freedom and the revolu-
tion were already noticed on its title-page. From a great variety
of circumstances^ we have moreover no hesitation in coming to
the conclusion^ that the number of bold and unprincipled de-
magogues, which are never wanting in great cities, was greatly
increased at that time in Paris by the influence of and a liberal
distribution of money by persons of importance, who regarded a
change in the state of public a£birs as absolutely necessary.

There can be no doubt that the numerous tumultuary com-
motions in 1788 and the following years were altogether dif-
ferent from the usual disturbances which occasionally take
place in large cities. The masses of people who rushed to the
palace of justice on the occasion of the arrest of the two coun-
cillors of parliament were so considerable, that the prisoners were
obliged to exert themselves to prevent a collision between the
ofiicers, by whom they were held in arrest, and the people. On
this occasion also, there was abundant evidence of the fact, that
the people were used as mere instruments by persons who em-
ployed pecuniary means to stimulate them to conduct which
might inspire the weak government with fear of the conse-
quences. Guard-houses were not only destroyed, but the per-
sons, and at a later period the houses, of some of the most di-
stinguished and active superior officers of the police were at-
tacked. These attacks were always attended with loss of life,
and many of the most audacious were obliged to pay the penalty
of their disregard of law and order with their lives. The streets
of Paris were crowded with beggars, vagabonds, and persons who
had been formerly condemned to the galleys, who had all col-
lected in the capital without any one being able to tell from
whence they came, which was in itself a conclusive evidence,
that persons of importance, or even a whole party in the com-
munity, were active in strengthening and recruiting these bands
of lawless depredators in Paris. The dreadful mob of those who
had been released from the various houses of correction {reprU
de justice), which still constitute the public evil of France, in
this and the following years, played the chief parts in those
awful scenes of murder which took place in the capital. From
the month of May the disturbances in the provinces continued
without any interruption. On the 5th of July the edicts of the

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789* 9

8th of May were publicly burned in Rennes ; in Dauphiny^ Pro-
vence, and finally in Toulouse, military measures were obliged
to be resorted to against the people. The courts did not sufier
themselves to be terrified into the adoption of the government
measures, but persevered in their resistance, even after the king
had reversed and abolished their decisions, until at length the
government became terrified at their boldness, and pusillani-
mously yielded. Eight parliaments had already been banished,
when the government, in July, suddenly passed from one ex-
treme course of action to another. When they perceived that it
was quite impossible to carry through their plans with the par-
liaments and estates of the provinces, the idea of a general as-
sembly of the estates of the whole kingdom was again enter-
tained. In July search was made after the records and reports
relating to the calling, constitution and election of the general
estates of the kingdom, which had not taken, place since 1614,
in order to make the necessary preparations for the calling of a
new assembly; and the royal cabinet order {arrit du canseU)
convoking the estates appeared as early as the 8th of August.
The assembly was convened for the 1st of May 1789 ; and it was
announced in the same proclamation, that in the meantime the
opening of the cour pliniere and of the new superior tribunals
(grands baiUages) was to be adjourned.

In the royal council on the 16th of August two important
measures were adopted at the same time, — a banker belonging
to the liberal party was appointed minister of finance, and
a species of national bankruptcy declared. Both these steps
were consequences of the great diminution which had taken
place in the income of the state, arising from the protracted
disputes between the government and the parUaments. AU
cash payments were suspended*, and it was at the same time
resolved immediately to recall Necker to the court. The prime
minister no doubt was of opinion that Necker would submit to
serve under him, and to regulate and direct the finances in his
stead. That Necker could not possibly undertake ; not merely
because he and the archbishop advocated completely difierent

* The arrit du conseil d'etat of the 16th of August contaiDed the following :
— " Soizante et seize millions de remboursemens seront suspendus ; les autres
parties doivent s^acquitter en dix-huit mois en tout ou en fractions, suiyant
leuT nature et en billets portant int^r^t a cinq pour cent, recevables de pr^fiS-
rence dans le premier emprunt, qui s'ouvrira/' Two-thirds, therefore, of all
payments were to be made in paper.

10 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

systems of administration^ but because the whole course of their
lives and actions had flowed in such an opposite channel^ that
Necker^ co-operating with the principal minister of the govern-
ment, would have become at once hated and useless. The arch-
bishop moreover belonged to that class of statesmen of whom
we are accustomed to regard Talleyrand as the ideal. In hia
youth (17^2) he was connected with Turgot in the conduct of a
liberal paper which made a great sensation among philanthro-
pists and philosophers^ and was very much praised by Naigeon,
Condorcet, and Dupont de Nemours. At a later period he also
spoke of freedom and continued to play the philosopher, although
at the same time, like the English whigs, he turned all the abuses
in the administration of church property to the advantage of his
relations, enriched himself with ecclesiastical endowments, and
as minister exercised every species of despotism.

Public opinion and the necessities of the state, which were to
be relieved by a loan, absolutely demanded the recall of Necker
to take charge of the administration of the finances ; and when
he refused to serve under the archbishop, the latter was obliged
in the month of August to lay down his office. The archbishop
had been formerly recommended to the queen by her mentor, the
abb6 de Vermond, and she had induced her weak husband to
call him to the duties of the ministry in the place of Calonne ;
she was now guilty of a new piece of imprudence on his dismis-
sal. She wrote a letter to the ex-minister, a man who was hated
by the people and the parliaments, in which she expressly stated
that her own opinions were very different from those of the peo-
ple, and thereby gave it to be understood that she might proba-
bly succeed in dissuading her weak husband from consenting to
the adoption of the measures recommended by Necker*. In

* The letter in which the archbishop announced to the queen that he was
obliged to resign his office, and the two notes were printed in the year 17S9,
and there was no imputation that they were not genuine. We omit the mi-
nister's letters to the queen, because their contents may be easily guessed from
the answers which were returned, and merely introduce the notes of the queeo.
The first is as follows : — " Je vois avec peine le depart de Mr. I'archev^ue de
Sens. L'abb6 de Vermond est charg^ de lui dire combien sa retraite m'affecte.
Trop prudent pour devoiler bien des choses Mr. TarchevSque se retirera sans
doute avec cette discretion qui accompagne I'homme qui n'est pas disgraci^ et
qui tient encore tant k la faveur." In the second the following occurs : —
" Mr. I'archevdque de Sens sera octroy^ dans sa demande ; Mr. de Brienne
(his brother) aura encore quelque terns le portefeuille de la guerre. C'est tou-
jours avec plaisir que la reine saisira Toccasion de t^moigner ses bont^ It Mr.
Tarchev^que."

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY l789. 11

the year 1789 these letters were printed to prove that no confi-
dence could at any time be placed in the Idng. Although the
minister was burned in effigy by the people^ yet the king, at
the request of his wife^ prevailed upon the pope (Uec. 1788) to
confer the dignity of a cardinal upon the archbishop, who had
taken refuge in Italy. This new cardinal (De Brienne) after-
wards sat as a member of the constituent assembly, forsook the
cause of the pope and consented to be sworn as a constitutional
bishop, for which reason the pope afterwards (17^0) again de-
prived him of the dignity which he had previously conferred.

From this time forward the opinion began to be generally en<*
tertained, that it was not the king, but Necker who was chiefly
to be regarded as the friend of the people, and that the queen
and the court must be kept in a state of alarm by a series of
public disturbances, in order to enable the minister to realise his
views. The alarming tumults which had raged in Paris during
the month of July were now therefore renewed with double
vigour, as soon as the prime minister had retired from his office.
On the 25th the people assembled on the Place Dauphin^, and
in spite of the militaiy severities to which Dubois, the colonel of
the dty watch {ffuet) had recourse, were guilty of many acts of
violence during this and the four following days. On the 27th
a straw figure was insultingly decked with the vestments of the
archbishop, and afterwards burnt on the Pont Neuf under the
statue of Henry IV . The whole blame on this occasion at court
was thrown upon the rich due d'Orleans, who was accused of
having the originators of these disturbances in his pay, and pro-
moting the spirit of disaffection and tumult among the mob. A
jeweller named Carle, who was well known to be one of the
creatures of the duke, was very actively employed in this riot;
and he was a person who was not only usually present at the
duke's orgies, but who also lived at a rate of expenditure un-
suited to his station or means. It was however foimd impossi-
ble legally to convict him.

Many citizens were killed or wounded during the scenes of
the 27th, which however were renewed on the 29th with greater
violence than before. The city guards attempted in vain to pro-
tect the house which was inhabited by Brienne, minister of war
and brother of the archbishop. They were repulsed by the
people, and the tumult became so alarming, that the minister
Breteuil ordered out the French and Swiss guards, and com-

12 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST BIVI8I0N. [CH. I.

manded them to advance against the people as if thej had been
a foreign enemy. This conduct incensed the people to the
highest degree^ against both Breteuil and Dubois. Fantin De-
sodoards, who is not more to be relied upon in his fifth edition
than in his firsts has however given the most romantically ex*
aggerated accounts* of the number of persons who fell on that
day. The unhappy persons who lost their lives in the affray
were not the proper parties to blame^ and those who were most
deserving of punishment altogether escaped. Carle, who had
been very active on the 27th, eluded the grasp of justice, and
the marquis de Nesle, who had led the attack against the house
of the minister of war on the 29th, was never even summoned
before the tribunals ; the minister of war on the other hand was
compelled to resign his office.

The minister of war had no sooner retired, than Lamoignon,
the keeper of the seals, found himself unable to maintain his
post, and on his withdrawal in September, the same scenes were
renewed which had taken place in July and August. On the
14th of September the people were first gratified with the in-
nocent amusement of solemnly burning the keeper of the seals
in effigy; but the mob, which was assembled to witness and
consummate this auto da fiy were not satisfied with its accom-
plishment alone. The houses of the archbishop and keeper of
the seals were set on fire and plundered, the city guards were
put to flight, and Breteuil was obliged a second time to call out
the French and Swiss guards to act against the people ; and on
this occasion the troops did not spare the rioters*

Under these circumstances, the mildness immediately after-
wards exhibited by the government assumed all the appearance
of weakness. The measures attempted to be carried into force
against the parliaments were recalled, the obnoxious councillors
who had been banished or thrown into state prisons were allowed
to return to Paris, and at the same time (Sept. 23 — 25) a public
declaration was issued, that the states-general should be con-
vened as early as January 1 789. The very first act of the newly-
assembled parliament was to cause this ordinance to be formally
enrolled in its minutes. But the parliament immediately after-

* Fantin Desodoard's ' Hist. Philosophiqne de la R^volation de France/
vol. i. p. 94 : — " La garde de Parb, qu'on appellait U guet, avoit occup^ la
place Dauphin^. II s'engagea snr le Pont-Neuf entre cette garde et une mnU
titnde de clercs de procureurs, d'artisans et d'ouvriera un combat, dans lequel
p^rirent deux cents individues."

§ I.] FBANOS TILL JULY l789* 13

wards lost all its influence and importance among the people by
the adoption of two ^otistical measures recommended by its
noble jurists. The courts under the influence of Necker's advice,
proposed to give a greater degree of weight to the middle classes
of the people than they had enjoyed at the commencement of
the serenteenth century, in consequence of the progress which
these classes had made in wealth and importance. This was the
loudly-expressed wish of the people, but it met with the most
vigorous resistance on the part of the parliament ; and at the same
time in which they caused the royal ordinance to be enrolled, they
subjoined this significant addition : the estates however must
be held according to the forms observed in 1614, according to
which the assemblies of the* three estates were held apart from
each other, constituted three separate chambers and possessed
three votes, of which each should be given by an equal number
of deputies. This was a species of declaration of war against
Necker, who was desirous of conceding double the number of
deputies to the third estate which was allowed to each of the
other two, and thereby gave an intimation of his design to form
the whole of the estates into one assembly. The second step
taken by the parliament proved that (mediately at least) it was
not wholly blameless of the tumults which during the last months
had disturbed the public repose, and that it regarded those who
had been engaged in them as genuine patriots.

The lieutenant of police in Paris, the commander of the city
guards, and even marshal de Biron, commandant of Paris and
now eighty years of age, were summoned before parliament and
required to give an account of the employment of a military
force during the late disturbances. The raging multitude^ who
had been attacked on those occasions, were denominated peace-
ful citizens, and the procureur-ffSneral was obliged to commence
proceedings against all those magistrates or officials who had
ordered or allowed the employment of the troops, and the king
was besought to set all those persons at liberty who had been
banished or arrested during the late commotions. The parlia-
ment even required that all the civil and military officials, who,
as they express it, had lost their situations by the ministerial
intrigue, should be restored to their respective places. The
prosecution indeed was not followed up, but those who had^been
removed were restored to their situations, and the parliament
immediately afterwards proved that their only object was to pro-

14 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH, I.

tect all those disturbances which were calculated to perpetuate
abuses, whilst on the contrary they were always ready to com-
mence judicial prosecutions against every effort at improvement.
In order to please the court, the parUament issued a proclama-
tion against all unions or assemblies of the people upon the
public streets or squares of the city ; the meetings however con-
tinued to be held notwithstanding.

Necker had no other means of carrying his views of radical
reform, and of effecting a complete overthrow and remodelling of
a system of taxation which was derived from the middle ages,
except by constituting the assembly about to be called according
to the form expressly forbidden by the parliament, and he was
therefore obliged to have recourse *to some other authority for
summoning a double number of deputies of the third estate.
Necker^s opinion of himself and of the omnipotence of his
wisdom, which in common with him is the characteristic of all
the doctrinaires^ suffered him to indulge in the complacent ex-
pectation, that such an assembly of notables as Calonne had
thought of calling would be disposed to support his views in
&vour of the citizens against the nobility and clergy, — a degree
of infatuation which is scarcely to be conceived. Immediately
after the publication of the declaration of parliament, which was
so completely opposed to his views, on the 5th of October,
Necker, who gave the tone in the ministry, summoned a meet-
ing of notables for the 6th of November, according to the same
form which had been observed in the preceding year, and for the
express purpose of obtaining their opinion as to the manner in
which the meeting of the estates of the kingdom should be
held.

The high officers of state and privileged persons who com-
posed this meeting by no means coincided with Necker as to
the fitness of the time which had been chosen for calling a
general assembly of the estates, even provided they had been
disposed to recommend any alteration of the ancient form.
Both parliament and the notables, that is, all those who had
hitherto been regarded as possessing any political importance in
the state, therefore publicly declared that they were totally at
variance in their opinions with the whole body of those who
were learned in the law of nations and with all writers of emi-
nence, all of whom not only insisted upon the propriety of call-
ing an assembly of the estates, but who required also that the

$ I.] FRANCS TILL JULY 1789. 15

whole of the three estates should constitute one assembly and
decide all questions by a majority of votes.

The estates of Dauphiny had already given a happy example
of the union of the whole body of the estates in one assembly^
and the most numerous and best of the political pamphlets'^
with which France was then deluged sought to show that the
influence and importance of the third estate must be made equal
to that of the other two.

These various pamphlets and notices concerning the estates
were called forth by the- government itself, and not so much by
Necker as by the archbishop of Sens himself. The latter no
sooner announced the king's will respecting the calling of the
estates than he published a declaration in his name {diclaratwn
du rat), in which all the provincial administrations^ all council-
lors of dties, academies, all learned and scientific men were in-
vited to give publicity to their views and opinions with regard to
the calling of an assembly of the estates-general of the kingdom*
In almost all the papers, essays and pamphlets published on this
occasion, a complete alteration of all the institutions of the state
and the aboUtion of the privileges enjoyed by particular classes
were demanded as an obvious necessity of the times, and the
only means of delivering the state firom the total ruin with
which it was threatened ; the plenipotentiaries of those classes
of whom the assembly of notables was composed would hear of
no such changes ; they rejected every proposition which leaned
towards such a theory, as that of giving to the third estate any
different position from that which it had held in 1614. Five
princes of the blood even ventured to protest against the decla-
ration which had been published by the minister in the name of
the king, inviting the learned to give counsel on this point to the
government, as well as against every attempt at making improve-
ments in the constitution. This step was the more injurious to
those who took it and to the whole body of the nobility, as it was
not approved even by the comte de Provence (Louis XVIII.),
and the whole assembly refused to take any part in this protest.

The comte de Provence, as president of the assembly, was un-
willing to bring the proposition of the princes before the meet-

* As we shall neither load our pages with quotations nor literature, we
may observe, that the fullest information concerning the pamphlets and pe-
riodicals referred to in the text may be found in the ' Geschichte (v. Schiitz)
der Staiatsvenlnderung in Frankreich unter Ludwig/ im 2 Theil, a. 1S8> and in
' Wachsmuth/ IrTh. s. 86, und folgende.

16 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

ing; but the same prince Conti, who a short time before had
played the ultra-liberal in the parliament^ now proposed to send
a message to the king'*^, declaring that it was absolutely neces-
sary to set bounds to the daily increasing number of political
periodicals and pamphlets ; that no plans or publications of new
systems of administration or government ought to be endured ;
and that all political writings should be utterly forbidden, if the
throne were to be maintained and public order preserved. To
this singular declaration the princes even added a recommenda-
tion to the king, that in order at once to put an end to all the
hopes which were so generally cherished and so loudly expressed
respecting an assembly of the estates, he ought publicly to de-
clare, that no changes whatever were to be suffered to be made
by the estates in the existing constitution or in its ancient forms.

The other members of the assembly of notables were not
however so absurd in their modes of thinking and acting. Necker,
in his book upon the revolution, and his doctrinaire daughter,
both of whom, at the time in which they wrote, lamented the
downfall of that dominion which was exercised by the fashion-
able and enlightened frequenters of the Parisian saloons, even
allege t that the notables, in the selection and constitution of the
estates, would have given effect to many liberal determinations.
Necker in this work also refers to the difficulty of his position
between the weak king and that crowd of courtiers who were
charmed with the trivial conversation of the Polignacs and their
companions, and guided by the princes, of all of whom the queen
availed herself continually to ui^e and drive the king from one
party to the other. He says therefore, that many of his mea-
sures would have met with great difficulties and obstructions at
court had it not been for the aid of the notables. Among these
may be specially mentioned the proposal of allowing every man,

* Marmontel has well observed^ in his ' M^moires Livre Xli^me/ vol. iii.
p. 172, " Dissipateur n^essiteux, le prince de Conti, plein du vieil esprit de la
Fronde, ne remuoit au parlement que pour 6tre craint IL la cour^" &c.

t The marquis Ferridres (torn. i. p. 13) savs with great justice, "Necker
s'^toit acquis aupr^ de la multitude une reputation d'honn^te homme, de
ministre habile ; il n'en avoit pas impost k des hommes exerc^s k juger les
gens en place ; ils connaissoient Tinaptitude, la gloriole de Necker ; ils savaient
qu'il leur serait ais^ de le perdre lorsqu'il deviendrait inutile ou contraire k
leurs vues ; ils ne craignirent point de se r^unir a lui ; ils employ tout en sa
faveur toutes les bouches qu'ils faisoienit parler ; et le secondant en apparence
ils en firent Tinstrument passif de Icur propres desseins. Le due d'Orl^ans
abandonna le parlement et se lia secr^tement avec Necker. La double repre-
sentation du tiers ^tat fut un article du traits."

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789. 17

who should be regarded eligible on account of his abilities^ to be
elected as a member in any of the three estates^ without any
reference to a property qualification. The seventh committee
{bureau), presided over by the comte de Provence, were even
vnlling to concede that the third estate should have a double
number of deputies and each of the other estates only a single
one. The other six committees however would by no means
acquiesce in this proposal, and the notables contrived to make
themselves completely hateful to the people.

By its deUberations of the 5th and 7th of December, the par-
liament attempted to regain the affections of the public, and
before the assembly of notables was dismissed on the 12th of
December, they caused a resolution to be handed to the king, by
virtue of which they required, not only that the estates should
be convened in the commencement of the following year, as had
been already promised, but that in future regular assemblies of
the estates should be held at fixed periods, and further, that no
taxes should be raised without the consent and approbation of
the estates of the kingdom. The parliament was on this occa-
sion blind enough to propose to the government at this very in-
stant to bestow some new rights on the fanatical jansenists and
vehement jurists of whom it was composed. It required, that
the assembly of the estates, the legislative body, should be
brought into closer connexion with the parliament, the executors
of the laws. It wished however to show itself disposed to yield
something to the spirit of the age, for it demanded at the same
time the abolition of the right of arbitrary arrest on the part of
the crown (of lettres de cctchet), the responsibility of ministers,
freedom of the press, and an equal division of the burthens of the
state. The parliament even attempted to repair the fault which
it had committed in refiising to assent to the doubling of the
number of deputies appointed to represent the third estate, and
left the whole affair to the ministry. By this step, the clause
which had been previously entered upon their minutes was at
least indirectly repealed, and Necker encouraged to the adoption
of the measures to which he had recourse on the 27th of De-
cember. On the 20th the dukes and peers followed the example
of the parliament, and declared that they were ready to relin-
quish eveiy advantage which they enjoyed in the way of exemp-
tion from the ordinary taxes of the state. Both the parliament
and peers however came too late; neither the people nor the

VOL. VI. c

18 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

govemment would recognise their liberality as such. The king's
answer to the parliament was couched in brief and repulsive
terms, intimating that it was no longer necessary for that body
to interest itself in the course and issue of public affairs ; he
replied that he had no communication to make to the parlia-
ment, but that he would so arrange public affiurs with the whole
nation that the well-being of the state might in future be settled
upon the firmest foundations. On the 27th of December, there-
fore, without any consultation with the parliament, or paying
any attention to the resolution of the notables, a cabinet order
was issued which determined the point respecting the number of
the deputies of the third estate.

According to this ordinance, the whole number of the united
deputies was to reach at least one thousand ; the number to be
chosen from each department was to be determined according to
the combined elements of amount of population and of contri-
butions to the burthens of the state ; and in each department the
third estate was to elect a number of deputies double that of
each of the other two. The elections were appointed to be
holden in March, and the first meeting of the general assembly
was put off from January till the 1st of May. On this occasion
the government fell into the material error of overlooking the
generally prevailing feeling of enmity towards the first two
estates, and in some measure of mischievously provoking the
struggle which was sure to ensue between them and the third
estate. In this ordinance the determination of the form of the
assembly was most injudiciously lefl to the decision of the estates
themselves; they were to decide whether they should meet in
three distinct bodies or be united in one single assembly, and de-
cide according to majority of voices. Had it been determined to
form three chambers, and the vote of each chamber as a whole to
have been considered equal to that of any of the others, the
third estate would obviously have derived no advantage from the
increase in their numbers. It could not therefore concede this
point, and Necker, to whom alone the cabinet order is ascribed,
committed a grievous error in leaving the question open for de-
cision. Necker has justified himself at great length against this
accusation, by alleging that the queen, who unfortunately still
continued to mix in the afiairs of the state and was present in
the council on this occasion, had prevented him from pursuing
the best course.

§ I.] FAANCK TILL JULY 1789. 19

The province of Dauphiny assembled in Romans had ah^ady
resolved in December to select their deputies to the general as-
sembly of the estates simply according to the circumstances of
the number of persons belonging to the three estates. Accord-
ing to this principle the clergy sent five, the nobles ten> and the
citiaens at large fifteen. The nobility and clergy of Brittany, on
the other hand, immediately fell into disputes both with the go-
vernment and the third estate respecting the royal ordinances of
the 27th of December. This contest had reached such a height
on the 27th of January 1789, that the two higher estates em-
ployed their farmers, peasants and labourers in the strife, whilst
the citizens secured the aid and employed the services of their
apprentices and workmen, and even of armed soldiers. The
nobility of Brittany commenced this struggle with the citizens
on the 26th of December by declaring their sittings permanent,
a proceeding which was imitated afterwards in the times of
terror, as soon as murder and destruction were contemplated. A
royal edict was no sooner communicated to them on the day just
mentioned, which a^yourned the sittings of the estates of Brit-
tany, than they formally renounced obedience and declared their
sittings permanent Each member entered into a solemn agree-
ment never to leave the hall of assembly empty either by night
or by day.

The two higher estates afterwards resolved on a formal protest
against the royal ordinance relating to the estates of the king-
dom, whilst the citizens, who possessed a description of militia
in the students and other young men of their order, caused a
species of justification to be drawn up and published by those
jurists who afterwards constituted the kernel of the Oironde.
The nobility sent forth their clients and servants against the
youthftd militia of the citizens, and the parliament took part
with the cause of the nobles, by issuing decrees against the &tt-
t>iin^ing youths, who on this occasion were protected by the go-
vernment. The citizens obtained military protection firom the
government ; the commandant or military governor of Brittany,
in order to put an end to these insolent permanent sittings of
the two higher estates, caused a number of cannon to be planted
against the places of meeting both of the nobility and prelates,
and threatened to fire upon them if they did not immediately
disperse. We should not have taken any notice of these dis-
putes had they not served to explain the reason why the nobiMly

c2

20 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH.I*

of Brittany afterwards refused in March to elect any deputies to
the general assembly of the estates. This had a very unfavour-
able effect in the first sittings of the estates-genera], paitly be-
cause the votes of the Breton deputies were lost to the nobility^
and partly because the most violent orators among the citizens
were selected as deputies^ and carried all the bitterness of their
feelings against the nobility with them to Versailles. During
this same period those confederacies {fidSratians) were very in-
nocently formed in Brittany^ which afterwards became so dread-
ful; because the young men of Nantes and St. Malo, under the
name of confederates {fidires), came to the aid of their fiiends
of the same age in Rennes. On this occasion a young student
of law played a very distinguished character^ and gave early evi-
dence of those military talents for which he afterwards became
renowned as general Moreau.

The opponents of the government moreover exercised a very
great influence throughout the whole kingdom in the election of
deputies to the estates-general, whilst the ministry seemed to
view with disregard the selection of the most vehement antago-
nists of every description of improvement by the nobility. There
can be no doubt that in general the ablest men in France were
elected, — men who were trained in the courts and public offices
of the country, whose talents had been exercised and their judge-
ments matured by experience, and who were armed with all the
learning and knowledge which coidd be derived from the strict
and learned schools of the time. This circumstance gave a par-
ticular character to the orators of this first general assembly of
the estates, and to their speeches above that of the others. A
great fault was committed by not insisting that the electors
should immediately separate after the performance of the duty
for which they had been called together, and not enter upon any
other subject than that of the election. This want of foresight
was attended in Paris with the most injurious results, because
the electors of that time consisted of most distinguished men,
who possessed the full confidence of their fellow-citizens, but at
the same time were filled with the most exaggerated ideas of the
rights of man.

The deputies of the three estates were to assemble in Ver-
sailles, and the opening of their assembly, which was at first
fixed for the 28th of April, then for the 1st of May, was even-
tually put off till the 5th. We do not think it necessary to refer

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789* 21

to the elements of which each was composed, as that may be
learned from every manual, but shall satisfy ourselves with one
general remark. This refers especially to the great preponde-
rance of the democratic element. The deputies of the nobles
were deprived of the votes of the one-and-twenty deputies from
Brittany, and among the ecclesiastical deputies there were 205
clei^men, the majority of whom, at least by birth and feeling,
belonged to the citizen class. We leave it to those who delight
in collecting historical anecdotes to inquire whether the meeting
of the estates was convened in Versailles instead of some place
more distant from Paris, in consequence of the queen's predi-
lection for her favourite Trianon, or that of the count d'Artois
for the luxuries, the refined and costly enjoyments of his castle
of Bagatelle ; certain it is, however, that the selection of Ver-
saiDes was a capital mistake. A popular outbreak and the plun-
dering of the house of a rich manufacturer, who right or wrong
was accused of being an aristocrat, and which excited general
terror in Paris very shortly before the opening of the meeting,
were ascribed to the encouragement and money of the distin-
guished malcontents, and especially to those of the duke of Or-
leans, without however being capable of any sufficient proof.

The workmen of the suburbs of St. Antoine and St. Marceau,
on the 27th of April, plundered the house of a rich manufacturer
of coloured papers, named R^veillon, set it on fire, puUed it
down, and were only driven away from the work of destruction
by a serious discharge of fire-arms, firom which many lost their
lives. This was merely an artificial prelude to the scenes of the
following time, in which an ochlocratic militia was formed out of
these same workmen and dignified with the name of the sove-
reign people. The government was compelled to march some -
new regiments to the neighbourhood of Paris, because the guards
had been obliged to fire and kill several men on the 27th, and
Reveillon himself to seek a refuge in the Bastille in order to save
his life *• It is very remarkable that the whole inquiry into the
scenes of murder and robbery perpetrated on this occasion was
so carelessly pursued, that the proper connexion and history of
the affidr were never brought to light.

In order to accomplish his views, which could only be effected

* The principal documents with respect to lUveillon and the scenes of the
27th and 2Sth of April will be found appended to the first volume of the
' M^moires de Ferri^res' (Paris 1S22), p. 417.

22 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

by means of the third estate^ Necker was obliged to favour the
movement by which all the tone-giving men of the day were car*
ried forward ; before the lapse of a few months however, he saw-
that he was not in a condition to direct its course or rule its im-
pulse. At a later period, Lafayette, and the celebrated astronomer
and visionary Bailly, became convinced of the same truth. The
latter, as well as Lafayette and his weak friends, were full of
enthusiasm and the best intentions, but possessed a veiy defi-
cient knowledge of mankind, and an imperfect judgement of
what was possible under certain circumstances. They indulged
in such visionary notions respecting the present as those in which
Bailly as a writer indulged with regard to the primitive ages and
their history. He, as is well known, derived all our arts and
sciences from a primitive people of whom no one ever heard ex-
cept Plato and himself, and of whom he gives an account in the
passage in which he speaks of Atlantis. The secret guidance of
events soon became more powerful than the public one, and the
number of the deceived was Legion. We cannot however lay
any stress upon the great influence of the duke of Orleans,
notwithstanding the activity of the people by whom he was
daily surrounded, such as Genlis and Chauderlos de la Close,
and at first also Mirabeau, and notwithstanding the great sums
which his agents contrived to draw from his resources. He had
unquestionably neither a party nor any fixed plan, and even if
he had had a plan, he would not have been in a condition to fol-
low it up with determination and success. There were however
two men, who possessed all the talents, all the knowledge, all
the connexions of the old rigUnCi and who availed themselves of
all its vices in order to create a new age, in which they might
find means of commencing anew their career of sensuality and
extravagance ;. and by means of their wit, smoothness and so-
phistry, of eclipsing all competitors under the new order of
things as they had done imder the old. These were Talleyrand
P^rigord, then bishop of Autun, and count Mirabeau, who
however was a man of much nobler views and higher national
feelings than he with whom he is here associated.

Honor^ Gabriel Riquetti, count de Mirabeau, was the brother
of viscount Mirabeau, who first struggled with fanatical zeal in
the national assembly for the maintenance of the privileges of
the nobility, and was the first who afterwards formed a military
corps at Worms for the purpose of contending for them by the

§ !•] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789. 23

power of the sword. The whole &mil j was distinguished for its
originality and genius^ — ^the father of the count by his writings,
and his uncle by his personal chanuster and the power and vi-
gour of his eloquence. As we learn from their letters published
in the present centuxy, both of the brothers were accustomed to
despise aU usual and traditional forms in their speeches as well
as in their actions ; but the son and nephew devia^ still further
from the usual path. His early life was remarkable for a conti-
nued succession of extravagant vices and crimes, alternating with
periods of vast and severe mental activity and the study of
human passions, weakness and cabals, which he learned in the
school of real life, and not from books. He was driven from his
country for having committed the grossest outrage upon a di-
stinguished married lady, after she had sacrificed her honour
and property for his sake, and whom he afterwards scandalously
betrayed and forsook. He became an author, because whilst in
Holland he was obliged to live by his pen, and his own father
regarded him as a foul blot upon tilie name and reputation of his
family.

Mirabeau's father was known at the same time by the names
of '^ firiend of the people,'' in consequence of his journal ; and
of ^^ tyrant of his family," in consequence of his behaviour to
his wife and children. By the favour of the minister of the
day he succeeded in procuring the issue of a lettre de cachet
for the arrest of his son, and had him thrown into prison,
where he was subjected to a long and severe confinement. The
morals and habits of the distinguished and the rich were then,
and partiy still are, of such a nature, that the name of a pro-
fligate of genius was sought after as a titie of honour, and Mi-
rabeau, after his discharge from prison^ was received at all
courts, and particularly at those of Germany, where he was
employed as a distinguished spy, without having any special
commission. To this period of his half-diplomatic career we
are indebted for his somewhat incredible secret history of the
Prussian court and his unjust letters against the emperor Jo-
seph, respecting the governorship of the seven provinces of the
Netherlands.

Mirabeau and his fnend Talleyrand P^rigord, whose course
of life completely resembled each other, although the former pos-
sessed some good qualities in which the latter was altogether
deficient, were persons well-acquainted with mankind, and knew

24 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. I.

the means of turning their fellow-men to account ; and at the
same time they possessed a knowledge, which in France was at
that time very rare, — a minute knowledge not only of their own
countrymen, but of Germany also ; they were intimately ac-
quainted with courts, the law of nations, politics, and the insti-
tutions of the empire. Talleyrand had prosecuted his studies in
Strasburg under professor Koch, who lectured in that univer-
sity on the law of nations, politics and the history of diplomacy^
at the same time as Cobenzl the Austrian, who assisted in con-
cluding the peace of Luneville ; Mirabeau, in his work on the
state of Prussia, which he composed conjointly with Mauvillon,
proved at least that he was a man thoroughly acquainted with
the nature of political science, however small the historical value
of his productions may be. Like his friend the bishop of Autun
he was loaded with debts, and by no means in a condition to
keep up the expenditure of a fashionable man of pleasure ; both
however were practical and laughed at all ideas of morality, such
as those contained in the writings of Rousseau, about which
Robespierre and St. Just, Roland, Bailly and the deputies of
Brittany and the southern commercial cities entertained the
most fanciful dreams. Mirabeau was a man to be won by the
court, and was afterwards really secured when it was too late,
and the nation was deprived of his services by death. The no-
bility of Provence ought to have chosen him as one of their depu-
ties, that he might have been bought by the court; but they had
no confidence in him. Neglected and despised by the nobles,
he assumed the character of a defender of the rights of the
people, which he played with such extraordinary ability, that it
was entirely owing to him that such of the middle classes as now
have money, sophistry, the ability to use smooth and polished
discourse, or have had the power by any means whatever of secu-
ring a party of adherents, have the whole government of France
in their hands. We very much doubt whether many were de-
ceived by the farce which Mirabeau played in Aix, by setting
up the sign of a woollen-draper before his door, and changing the
name of count Mirabeau for that of a tradesman and citizen, in
order that he might be elected one of the deputies for the third
estate to represent the city of Aix. We believe that he was
elected because his family was very well known, and because,
when great and zealous efforts are to be made, a proselyte or
convert is always of more use than an old believer. He and

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789. 25

TaUeyrand afterwards found in Danton, in Paris, a man who,
like themselves, was persecuted by the believers, but who was
possessed of that description of talents, and of that species of
popular eloquence, which made him a very fit instrument to be
used as a tool for the promotion of their views*.

In the same manner as Mirabeau acquired celebrity and power
by his eloquence, another native of Provence at the same time
became an oracle in the first assembly, and afterwards in the
convention, by his dialectics and sophistry and the metaphysical
obscurity in which he clothed his thoughts. His brief oracular
sentences fi^quently decided the question at issue, and he pro-
duced far greater effects in the committees than others did in
the full assembly. The man in question was Sieyes, firom Fr^-
jus in Provence, and vicar-general of the bishop of Chartres,
who has been usually regarded as one of the chief clients of the
duke of Orleans. He had gained some reputation as a dialecti-
cian and sophist by his works on Locke and Condillac, and from
this time forward became renowned as a publicist. Among many
other pamphlets, he wrote one which made a great sensation,
under the title, ^' WTuit is the Third Estate?'' This was re-
ceived with great applause, because it contained a full develop-
ment of the favourite principles of the times, and showed that
the great body of the citizens alone constituted the nation,
whilst the two higher classes composed merely a small and par-
ticular class. The pamphlet was written in a dear, easy and
logical style. The men of wealth, who with patriotic magnani-
mity were ready to sacrifice their money for the promotion of
political improvements, caused large numbers of Sieyes' pam-
phlet to be printed and to be most extensively circulated through-
out the whole of the kingdom. The city of Paris moreover, to
show their sense of his services, elected the abb^ as one of their
deputies to the states-generaL BaiUy, the sentimental astrono-
mer, was chosen as one of his colleagues, and produced the same
effects by his enthusiasm which Sieyes did by his logical acu-

* A Frenchman has prononnced the following opinion of his character :
"La nature Tavoit fait pour haranguer la populace, poor tonner snr une borne
dans un carrefour. II avoit cette sorte de voix mugissante d'nn crieur public*
qui tient de la voix humaine et du beuglement du taureau, et qui se fait en-
tendre sur lea toits ; il poss^doit I'^loquence des charlatans des rues et la lo-

gique des voleurs de grands chemins CVtait un compost d'audace et de

mollesse, d'activit^ et d'insouciance, donnant I'exemple de la concussion, du
pillage, et de la mauvaise foi."

86 FIFTH PERIOD.— *FIR8T DIVISION. [CH. I.

*men and his tact in bringing back the aasemblj to the real points
under discussion, and pointing out exactly the expressions which
ought to be employed, in the midst of the rambling eloquence
and wavering views of so many of its members. In our doctri^
naire times, Mignet has with justice pronounced a eulogy upon
this priest, who was an object of aversion to the better men of
a former period. They were disgusted with the mean avarice
aud subtle cunning of a man who was the author of a number
of constitutions, and became the mere dialectic instrument of the
times of terror.

Among the deputies of the third estate there were 200 advo-
cates, a number which was undoubtedly too large, because they
belong to a class who are accustomed, and often obliged to
endeavour to make the worse appear the better reason, and to
defend themselves by mere phrases and verbiage. The elder
Robespierre was one of this number and class, who played a very
subordinate part in the first general assembly. It is however
unhappily quite true, that the best and noblest men proved more
injurious to the cause of the nation than all these advocates, of
whose number all writers on the revolution have complained ;
they were full of visionary ideas concerning right, virtue and free-
dom, and like men in a dream came into an assembly of people
awake. Such persons as Barnave, Thouret, Bailly, Or^ire
and Lafayette were precisely the more easily led astray, in pro-
portion as they were more upright and faithful in their purposes,
as they attached importance to principles and learning, and were
unacquainted with men. The author of this history became ac-
quainted with Gr^ire in 1822, and found him still as much
unacquainted with the world and with mankind, as good and
visionary in his views, as this zealous jansenist could have been
in 1789. Full of zeal against the court, luxury and fashionable
distinction, he came at that time suddenly from an isolated par-
sonage into the great world of Paris, and saw its corruption.
Lafayette also, as is well known, remained true to the dreams
of his youth till the end of his life ; that indeed is a circum-
stance highly honourable to him, but which was very often
equally injurious to the good cause. Bailly paid with his life
for that brief renown which was incredibly beneficial to his phi-
lanthropic vanity, and for the error which drove him from the
observatory and the retirement of his study into that public life
to which he did not belong. Barnave turned from republican

§ I.] PRANCS TILL JULY 1789. 27

to monnrchical views when he waa compelled to bring back th<
royal fiimily from Varennea to Paris.

Louis XVI. belonged to that pernicious and unhappy class of
men who are usually called '^ good people/' because they listen
to every pious or good word, are ready to acquiesce in every
opinion^ and to satisfy every one's wishes, without possessing
either inspiration or energy for the accomplishment of any good
purpose, and are therefore the continual sport and prey of
women and flatterers. The princes, courtiers, masters of eti-
quette and ceremonies, together with the publicists of the govern^
ment, by magnifying and laying stress upon the most contempt^
ible trifles, were easily able to retard or destroy the greatest plans
of his ministers. Had he possessed any judgement or will of his
own, in the excited state of public opinion which prevailed, he
would not have endured those ceremonials in which the cham*
pions of the ancient etiquette indulged on the 4th of May 1789,
in the churches of Notre Dame and St« Louis in Paris, and on
the following day at the opening of the assembly of the estates
in Versailles. Instead of withdrawing from public notice and
observation the privileges which were vehemently attacked in
the writings of the day, they exposed them in all their fhllness
and absurdity to the eyes of the people. The deputies of the
nobles were adorned with splendid knightly apparel, whilst the
deputies of the third estate were dressed in the simplest style *•
These petty and unseasonable distinctions excited so much dis«
pleasure as to find a place in all the histories of the revolution,
although the marquis de Ferritees informs us, that the dress
which was appointed for the deputies of the third estate was
such as constituted the oiEcial costume of public oflScers of high
standing {de9 maiires dei requites ei dee caneeUlere ftiat).
The conduct of the court officials on these occasions gave deep
oflfenoe to the vehement and excited feelings of the third estate,
and especially the forms observed on the reception of the estates
in Versailles. The two higher estates were admitted into the
palace by the principal door, whilst the members of the third
were only allowed to enter by a side one, and obliged to wait in
a back chamber, by no means fit for their use. At the audience

* "Habit noir, veste et paremens de drap d'or, manteau de soie, cravatte de
dentellea^ le chapeau h plomes i^trouss6 k la Henri^Quatre $ le clerg6 en sou-
tane, grand mantean, bonnet carr6 ; lea eylqaes avec lenrs robes violettes et
leniB rochets ; le tiers vita de noir, manteau de sole, eravatte de batiste."

28 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. I.

itself the other estates were received into the king's cabinet,
whilst the third remained in the large reception-room ; and only-
one of the wings of the folding-doors was opened for their ad-
mission, whilst both were thrown open for the other estates.
The course pursued in Versailles was the more surprising, as
very unequivocal symptoms had been shown in the church on
the 4th, that neither priests, nobles, nor king any longer stood
high in public estimation*.

A still greater imprudence was committed on the 5th, at the
opening of the assembly of the estates ; and on this occasion it
was not the mere courtiers and masters of ceremonies who mis-
took the direction of the public feeling, but the ministers them-
selves. The room which had served for the first solemn assem-
bly of the whole three estates was not only pointed out to the
third estate alone as the place of its particular meetings, but it
was given to be understood, that the ministers calculated upon
a union of the three estates in one assembly, although they did
not venture expressly to command through the king that such
should be the case. Barentin, keeper of the seals, as well as the
minister Necker, referred in their speeches to a union of the
estates ; but they allowed their wishes to be inferred from their
words, and never alluded to the manner in which the powers of
the deputies were to be verified. Barentin declared, that the
king left it with the assembly itself (f?en rapporte aux vceux des
Stats) to determine the manner of proceeding, but said it would
appear as if voting by the head was the preferable mode, inas-
much as such a method would give only one result, and the gene^
ral wish would be thereby more fiilly expressed.

On the veiy evening of the 4th of May, the members of the
third estate profited by the circumstance of having been put in
possession of the hail intended for the common meeting of the
three estates, to resolve, that as the minister had appointed the
following day for the various deputies to verify their powers,
they would invite the other two estates by means of a deputa-
tion to come to their place of assembly for that purpose. This
was the signal for a dispute, which so clearly showed the utter

* Berville and Barri^re have very justly preserved and taken notice of the
following fact. When the bishop of Nancy, in his address delivered in the
church of St. Louis on the 4th, was drawing a lively picture " des maux occa-
sionn^ par la gabelle, des applaudissemens dclaterent. On ^toit dans une
^glise, le saint. sacrement expos^ et le roi orient. Jusqu'alors on ne s'^toit
permis d'applaudir> ni au sermon, ni en presence du roi."

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789. 29

powerlessness of the government and the moral preponderance
of the men who were united in the third estate^ that from that
time forward the credit of the government was gone. The depu-
ties of the third estate were now imceasing in their endeavours
to seize upon one portion of the power of the government^ and
the electors of the deputies simultaneously seized upon another.
This arose from the neglect of the government in prohibiting
the electors from engaging in any other afiairs than that of the
election^ and from even having given them a pretence for re-
maining together, by granting them permission to consult and
communicate their instructions {cahiers) to the deputies whom
they had elected, and to deliver their opinions on the constitu-
tion of the assembly. We shall immediately see the results to
which this kd, by the example of the electors of Paris.

The good Bailly, who continued to dream of Plato^s republic
in the midst of the corrupt city of Paris, furnishes us with a very
striking and naj/ description of his own enthusiastic but highly
unpractical views, which were shared in by the better part of
the electors of the city of Paris. He makes it evident, that not
merely the electors, but even the citizens, met together in their
primary assemblies, regarded themselves with pride as an anta-
gonist power to the king's government. In the whole of the
thirty electoral districts into which the city of Paris was divided,
the district assemblies regarded themselves as a species of po-
litical dubs, whilst the electors who were chosen by them looked
upon themselves as a sort of tribunes of the people*. The elec-
tors of the thirtieth district assembled in the Hotel de Ville also
exhibited themselves in this character in the course of their con-
sultations respecting the instructions which were to be given to
their deputies. In the written articles of instruction which were
drawn up, the deputies were expressly commanded not to enter

* Bailly, M^moires, &c. (Paris 1804) vol. i. p. 12: — "Qaand je me trouvai
aa miliea de rassembl^ de district, je cms retpirer ttn air nouveau ; c'^toit un
ph^Dom^ne que d'etre quelque chose dans Tordre politique, et par sa seule qua-
\\t€ de citoyen ou plnt6t de bourgeois de Paris ; car k ces jours nous ^tions
encore bourgeois et non citoyens. Les hommes rassembl^ depuis plusieurs
ann^ dans des clubs, s'y ^toient occup^ des affaires publiques, mais comme
conversations sans aucun droit et sans aucune influence. Ici Ton avoit le droit
d'^lire, on avoit au moins comme aux anciens ^tats-g^n^raux le droit de faire
des demandes et de dresser des cahiers. Ici Ton avoit une influence £loign6e,
mais obtenue pour la premiere fob depuis plus d'un si^le et demi ; et ce pri-
vil^;e ^oit acquis a une g<6n^ration ^lair^, qui en sentoit le prix et qui pou-
voit en ^tendre les avantages."

30 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

upon tlie consideration of any financial afiairs till a new consti-*
tution was adopted for the kingdom, though, properly speaking,
they were assembled by virtue of the old constitution. It waa
therefore also expressly remarked, that the radical improve-
ments so greatly to be desired could only be obtained by means
of financial difficulties. It is difficult to form any correct idea
of the giddiness of that excited period. The most admirable and
distinguished men were urged on from what was really capable
of execution, and consequently stable, to aim at what was inde-
finite and unattainable, and wholly inconsistent with French
customs, inconsti^ncy and vanity. For confirmation of these
remarks, we have only to read what Bailly has recorded con-
cerning the commissions which were given to him and his col-
leagues. To the exclusion of all that was really practical in these
commissions, and suitable to the circumstances as resulting from
the necessities of the times, he commends the Parisians for im-
portunately insisting that a declaration of the rights of man
should precede the formation of the new constitution^. It will
be seen firom the accounts which Bailly gives of the tenor of
these instructions, that the citizens of Paris had already indicated
all those steps which were afterwards taken by that part of the
national assembly which was filled by the doctrines of Montes-
quieu's * Spirit of Lawst-'

On this occasion the electors of Paris even suffered themselves
immediately to intermeddle in the dispute which had already

* Bailly, L c. p. 46. " Je ne ferai paa un m^rite k la vUle de Paris d'avoir
vot^ la coDBolidatioD de la dette nationale k laquelle elle avoit un inUrdt ma-
jeur ; ni mhae d'avoir d^fendu tout inap6t et tout emprunt avant la consti-
tution ; c'^toit one precaution de Btieti pour la nation entidre. La nation
n'ayoit point en main I'autorit^ ; la force appartenait au gouvernement : c'^toit
le d^sordre des finances qui faisait appeler la nation. Elle n'avoit done de
moyens de force et de resistance que dans ce d^ordre mdme, il ne fallait done
le faire cesser qu'au moment que ses droits seraient reconnus et sa constitu-
tion assur^. Maiaje louerai les ikctewt de Pari8 qui le$ premier9 oni eonfu
Vidie de faire pricSder la conetituium FVanfaiee de la dedaraiion dee droiU de
rhomme," He then adds the declaration itself.

t L. c. p. 48. " La constitution propose par les ^lecteurs de Paris ren-
ferme presque toutes les bases qui ont et^ decr^t^s par I'assembl^ constitu-
ante ; et la puissance legislative k la nation et le pouvoir ex^cutif au roi ; et Tin-
violabilit^ du monarque et rh6r6dit6 de la monarchie ; le pouvoir des impdts
reserve k la nation. Ceux qui s'opposeront k la tenue des etats-g^neraux, de-
clares traitres k la patrie. La liberty individuelle, la responsabilite des mini-
stres. Les municipalites librement eiues, les asBembl^es provinciales. La con-
stitution ne pouvant Stre chang^e que par uae convention nationale express^-
ment et pour cet objet convoquee," &c. &c.

§ I.] FEANCB TILL JULY 1789. 31

been canying on sinee the 6th of May« between the members of
the third estate and those of the two higher orders respecting
the verification of their powers^ and thus interfered with public
business which could in no wise have fallen within their province
under any constitution whatsoever. The very first sheet of a
journal which was published under the name of Mirabeau, and
bore the title of the ^' States-General/' contained a most vehe-
ment and exciting article against the nobility and cleigy. The
government^ by a resolution of the council of state passed on the
7thj attempted to suppress the paper, but counsellor Target ap-
pealed to the electors of Paris against the resolution. He sub-
mitted the case to the electors on the meeting of the 8th, and
the electors of the deputies of the third estate unanimously re-
solved to protest against the decision of the council. This pro-
test was also supported by the electors of the nobility of this
department assembled in Paris. The electors of the nobles in-
deed strongly declared their disapprobation of Mirabeau's jour-
nal, but at the same time resolved that the protest of the electors
of the nobles and of the citizens should be laid before the two
higher estates.

The public scandal of the interference of women in the great
public questions of the day commenced about the same time as
the men who possessed and deserved the respect of the Parisians,
and Target, who was afterwards one of the most zealous defend-
ers of monarchy, gave the example of laying claim to rights,
which could not be conceded without throwing everything into
confusion. On the 9th there appeared in the assembly of elec-
tors of the third estate a deputation of fish-women, in order
to thank those electors for what they had already done, and
earnestly to recommend to them the interests of those whom
these ladies called exclusively the people. The fish-wives were
followed by the fruit-women and other market-women on the
10th. These men, who were undoubtedly animated by patriotic
feelings, instead of recommending the deputation to pay atten-
tion to their own immediate concerns and to return to their
stalls, made large contributions in money in order to gratify them
by presents, and thus to encourage them to new demonstra-
tions. This conduct can only be excused by supposing that
they knew they would have need of the instrumentality of brute
force, in order to overcome the obstinacy of those hardened ari-
stocratic hearts, of which the marquis de Ferrieres, himself an

32 FIFTH PBBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

enemy of all innovations^ draws so dreadful a picture. It was not-
withstanding a misfortune for France, that her best men were
obUged to sacrifice morality to poUtics ; and we cannot there-
fore wonder that the men of the saloons, who cherished and ex-
pressed liberal ideas as long as they served their purpose (among
the rest Marmontel), were at that time willing to see only the
dark side of the prevailing movement, and that the enthusiasts
and patriots were confounded with the knaves, by whom they were
misused*. Marmontel and Bailly have both left mSmaires behind
them, by a comparison of which we readily learn to distinguish
such vain, courtly and effeminate rhetoricians as Marmontel and
Morellet from noble though erring enthusiasts like Bailly. In
the assembly of electors Marmontel became terrified for himself,
he saw nothing but bribery and chicane everywhere around
him, and when the whole assembly arose to express their assent
he alone remained sitting. He explains this anecdote of himself
by saying that he saw nothing anywhere but intriguers, and was
convinced that the members of the society who met at Duport's,
and collected large sums of money for the purpose of exciting
popular commotions, had infused their turbulent spirit into
the electors also. True it is, that the speeches which the foolish
marquis St. Huruge and others daily pronounced in the Palais
Royal, where the marquis with his grotesque figure exerted
himself like a Demosthenes, drove multitudes of people to Ver*
sailles who belonged to the working classes, and must therefore
necessarily have been compensated in some way for the loss of

* Morellet, in his 'M ^moires/ vol. i. p. 336, speaking of these political clubs
in Paris, concludes as follows : — " Le plus hardi de ces clubs ^toit celui qui
8*assembloit chez Adrien Duport, conseiller au parlement. LA se trouvaient
Mirabeau, Target, Roederer, Duport, I'^ydque d'Autun, et d'apr^s les noms de
ces membres dominans on peut croire, que dans leurs projets de r^formes ces
Messieurs ne marchaient pas avec une extr^e timidite." Marmontel, liv. xi.
vol. iv. p. 42, adds to what has been said in the text : — " Soit que Duport fut
de bonne foi dans son dangereux fanatisme, soit qu'ayant mieux calculi que
sa compagnie les hasards qu'elle alloit courir, il eAt voulu se donner k lui-m^me
une existence politique ; on savoit que chez lui, des I'hiver pr^^ent, il avoit
ouvert comme une ^cole de r^publicanisme, oil ses amis prenoient soin d'at-
tirer les esprits les plus exaltes, ou les plus expos^ k T^tre." Marmontel
afterwards states (on which however we lay no stress), that Chamfort the
poet, who was unquestionably a zealous republican, as a friend and com-
panion of Mirabeau, had told him, *' L'argent surtout et Tespoir du pillage
sont tout*pui8sans parmi le peuple. Nous venons d'en faire I'essai au fau-
bourg St. Antoine, et vous ne sauriez croire combien peu il en a coilt^ au due
d'Orleans pour faire saccager la manufacture de cet honn^te R^veillon, qui
dans ce mdme peuple faisoit subsister cent families. Mirabeau soutient plai-
samment, qu'avec un millier de louis on peut faire une jolie addition."

§ I.] FRANCS TILL JULY 1789. 33

their labour. Bailly also completely disapproved of the resolu*
tion declaring their sittings permanent, which was passed by the
body of Parisian electors, after having drawn up their instruc-
tions to the deputies whom they had elected. The revolutionary
importance of this determination on the part of the electors to
continue their sittings during the whole period of the meeting
of the estates, in order to keep up a continual correspondence
with their representatives, became afterwards obvious on the
14th of July. The government indeed by a prohibition showed
their desire to prevent the fulfilment of the purpose, but the
prohibition was not enforced.

The government moreover, in the contest which arose respect-
ing the verification of the powers of the deputies, as on all other
occasions, proved that everything was to be obtained 6rom them
by perseverance and fear, and nothing in any other way. In the
disputes concerning the mode of voting, whether by estates se-
parately or by a simple majority of the united body, the govern-
ment suffered itself to be deprived not only of the powers of
legislation, but also of dominion. The galleries which had been
appropriated to and occupied by the court on the first solemn
sitting of the assembly were afterwards filled with a number of
hearers, which chiefly consisted of the democratic Parisians, who
greeted every bold sentiment with cheering and applause ; but
afterwards the same galleries became the resort of, and were al-
most exclusively occupied by, the hired populace*. The theatrical
custom of paying a number of persons called the claque, either
to promote the success or ensure the condemnation of a new
piece, was now resorted to in Versailles, but upon a much greater
scale. £very vehement speech against the nobility and every
attack upon the court speedily found their way and became cur-
rent among the public; and every man who was designated as
an aristocrat within the chamber was insulted by the mob as
soon as he passed beyond its walls. From the 19th of May, the
government had besides given permission for the publication of
the debates and proceedmgs of the estates, and from that time
forward, all the newspapers and journals were filled with the
most intemperate outbreaks. Every group in the Palais Royal,
in coffee-houses and in private societies, formed a political party.
The spirit of the times moreover was by no means roused by the

* Thiers after his fashion says, — " Des tribunes destinies d'abord a la coor
et envahies bient6t par le public."

VOL. VI. D

34 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

declamations of the few hundred advocates who sat in the as-
sembly, but merely promoted and nourished; for even the most
zealous opponents of these orators^ the marquis Ferrieres^
Bouill^, Morellet, and Marmontel, admit that it would have been
altogether impossible to stem the overwhelming torrent of in-
dignation which was sweeping away everything ancient.

The bitterness and animosity of this long dispute concerning
the verification of their powers fell altogether upon the hated
majority of the members of the two higher estates^ because the
minori^ of the clergy , led by the bishop of Autun on the one side
and the abb^ Gr^ire on the other, and of the nobles under the
guidance of Lafayette and his friends on the one part, and the
duke of Orleans and his clients on the other, vigorously applauded
and supported every step taken by Mirabeau, who wielded the
power of the thurd estate. The nobles had constituted them-
selves into a separate chamber on the 11th, and altogether re-
fused to acknowledge or suffer such a chamber as that of the
third estate : this led to long debates, and no result was arrived
at till the 27th of May* On this day, however, the third estate at
length threatened to proceed to constitute itself as the assembly
of the estates, to the exclusion of the two others, and thereby
compelled the ministry to make an attempt at mediation, in
order to frustrate the secret wishes of the caballing circle of the
Polignacs and the count d'Artois, who were desirous of breaking
up the assembly. The first step which would have led to a
complete division, and been followed by the dissolution of the
assembly, was taken by the majority of the nobles on the 28th,
and the war declared. The nobles passed a resolution on the
28th, which was intended as a hostile opposition to that passed
by the commons on the previous day.

In this war between the two estates, the clei^ seemed rather
to incline to the side of the citizens, and this circumstance em-
boldened Necker to step in. He uiduced the king to address a
letter to these two estates, in which he entreated them under his
mediation to re»open the conferences with the nobles respecting
the verification of the powers, which had been broken ofi^. For
this purpose the king appointed commissioners, and the con-
ferences were commenced anew on the 30th ; the nobles, how-
ever, declared that they could only yield to .the arbitration of
the king in questions of minor importance, but that on the chief
point, the separate verification of their powers, they must insist

§ I.] PBANCS TILL JULY 1789. 35

on their own resolution. In this way, the five conferences held
on the 30th of May, the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 9th of June, could
lead to no other result than that of prolonging the dispute, till
the deputies of the third estate had so fully convinced them-
selves of the feeling of the nation and the weakness of the
government, as to venture upon the step which they actually
took on the 10th of June. They resolved once more peremptorily
to require both the nobles and clergy to present themselves in
their assembly with a view to the verification of their powers ;
and when this demand was not followed by the desired compli-
ance, they opened their own minutes on the 12th, commenced
with the verification of the powers of such as were present, and
as soon as a certain number were examined and admitted, they
entered upon their deUberations as if they alone constituted the
assembly of the estates. On the following day there was a public
manifestation of the division which subsisted among the dexgy
between the abb^s and bishops, between the vehement jansenists
and the zealous papists : this division led the one party to be*
come the supporters of every radical improvement, and the other
the maintainers of every ancient abuse. On the 13th, three
clergymen from Poitou went to the meeting of the third estate,
caused their powers to be examined and verified, and afterwards
returned to their own body. On the 14th six others followed
their example, and on the 15th and 16th ten more pursued the
same course : among the last was the abbe Gr^goire, one of the
few in this assembly whose views, like those of Robespierre and
Buzot, had already taken a completely democratic direction. In
his pious zeal against luxury, the court, and popery, he had
come to that very point to which Robespierre had been driven
by his zeal against religious poetry and by his dry attachment
to virtue.

The king's mild remonstrances* with the majority of the
nobles, in consequence of their rejection of all his efforts at con-
ciliation, were vain, for the nobility knew well that the king would
soon again yield to his wife and her Polignacs, even although
he had been prevailed upon to send such a letter at the sugges-

* " J'ai examine," says the king, " Tarrdte de la noblesse. J'ai vu ayec
peine^ qa'il persistait dans les r&erves et les modifications qa'ii avait mises
an plan de conciliation propose par mes commissaires. Plus de der§rence de
la part de I'ordre de la noblesse aurait peut*6tre amen^ la conciliation que j'ai
d^sir^."

D 2

36 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

tion of Necker. The third estate entertained the same opinion^
which after having constituted itself on the IGtb^ under the pre-
sidency of its oldest member^ assumed the title of the ^^ National
Assembly ^' on the I7th^ elected a president^ and continued from
that time to issue formal decrees addressed to the whole people.

The subtie and cautious Sieyes had suggested the steps which
were taken on the 16th and 17th: Mirabeau^ by his eloquence,
guided the order of the debates, and gave form and tendency to
the thoughts of the assembly. An undistinguished advocate
named Legrand hit upon the happy expression ^^ National As-
sembly''; and Chapelier and Target, two of the ablest members
of the supreme court, were entrusted with the duty of drawing
up the resolutions of the assembly. The deliberations of the
16th were particularly stormy^ Mirabeau and others however
were prudent enough to select Bailly, the vain and sentimental
member of three academies, to be president of the assembly, for
he was best fitted to take the strong and violent resolutions of
the body under academic protection. He was best fitted, with
his upright, genuine, but unpractical inspiration, to announce, as
the dawn of the golden days of freedom, the thoughts and de-
vices which were the products of such men as Sieyes and Mira-
beau, men who made a mock of all true enthusiasm. It is
impossible better to describe the manner in which Bailly per-
formed this duty, or to show how he and all the members of
the assembly felt and comported themselves in the new dignity
of their political existence, than in the words of the president
himself'i'.

With the greatest degree of self-satisfaction, Bailly gives an
account of the maimer in which he allowed the tumult in the
assembly on the 16th first to exhaust itself and subside, and
then prevailed upon the assembly to adjourn the discussion of
the resolution on the constitution till the following day, because
it was then an hour past midnight. On the I7th a formal re-
solution was first passed {donn6 un arrity qui Jut le premier acte

* Tlie pathoB of the following passage furnishes an excellent illustration of
the tone of those times and of the genuine inspiration of Bailly, which proved
BO serviceable to him on the 20th : he says, " L'assembl^e n'a jamais ^t^ plus
grande; elleoffrait alors un spectacle auguste et imposant; le prdsident (him-
self) calme et tranquiile, la grande majority de ses membres dans un silence
profond et dans une sagesse que des cris et des violences ne pouvaient par-
venir k troubler. Enfin v^rs une heure la plupart de ceux qui faisaient le
bruit ^tant sortis successivement, le calme s'^tablit ; j'en profitai," &c.

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1789. 37

coHstitutionnel), that the assembly of the national representa-
tives consisted of the 9600th part of the nation^ and that there-
fore such a number of deputies could not remain inactive, be-
cause the deputies of certain districts and classes of the citizens^
who had been invited to the assembly did not choose to present
themselves at its meetings. The name of '^ National Assembly''
was then confirmed, which had been su^ested by Si^yes and
improved by Legrand on the previous day, because by the as-
sumption of this name, the deputies of the tiers itat were in
some measure stamped as the nation, and placed in opposition
as a counterbalancing power to that of the king. These resolu-
tions were immediately accompanied by the bold determination
to commence their labours for the regeneration of the nation,
and not to separate as an assembly till the nation had been fully
restored to its privileges and rights. According to the accom-
panying declaration, this decree should have been made known
to the king and the nation. The president of the assembly very
drily observes, that he and his colleagues were well aware that
the efiect of these resolutions and the consequent oaths admini-
stered to the deputies, was to deprive the king of his highest
privileges and distinction, and to transfer them to the national
assembly^.

The deputies were cheered and encouraged at this sitting by
the presence of 600 Parisians, who crowded the galleries destined
for the court, and who, by their loud acclamations during the
whole of the preceding night, had continued to urge on the hesi-
tating, and to give new spirit to the daring. Notwithstanding all
this, the assembly felt that it had reason to fear a dissolution, and it
therefore hastily adopted several other resolutions of a completely
revolutionary character, in order to terrify the court and to en-
sure for its members the countenance and aid of the innumerable
creditors of the state. The first article involved in these resolu-
tions bound the deputies to follow a course of which no one had
ever thought when they were summoned, and which indeed was
contrary to the existing constitution. Another article served to
delude the people, who during this winter were suffering from
want and oppressed with high prices, with the hope that those
sufierings would be relieved by the conduct of the national as-

* Bailly observes^ — " Le gouvemement ne pouvoit s'emp^her de voir qae
cet acte resaississait raatoriS jusqu^alors uniquement royale, pour la remettre
dans )es mains de la nation, et de ses Ugitmes reprhentane."

38 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

sembly. It was declared in the resolution^ that all the taxes
which had been hitherto raised were illegal^ because the nation
had not been consulted in their imposition^ although the nation
alone^ from the earliest times^ had possessed the right of assenting
to the taxes to be raised for the public service. A very cunning
addition was however appended^ — ^tbat notwithstanding this, all
the taxes should continue for a time to be raised as had pre-
viously been done, but only until the period of the dissolution of
the assembly, yrom whatever cause such dissolution should take
place. To these well-calculated clauses, a further addition was
made as foUows s — Shoidd the assembly not be dissolved until
it has completely regenerated the nation (Jusgu^i la r^gin^ra^
turn de la nation) j it would be careful not only to provide for the
regular payment of the interest of the national debt, but would
institute the most searching inquiry with a view to trace out the
causes of the prevailing scarcity and dearth.

These decrees were forthwith sent to and distributed in all the
provinces, and the legal functionaries, so many of whom occupied
seats in the assembly, designedly availed themselves in tiieir
composition of all those terms and phrases which might give
them the character of proceeding from an independent will {Pas-
semblSe entend et dScrite), and which terms, according to the
usages of the existing constitution, could be employed by the
king alone*. We must leave the question undecided, whether
these resolutions filled the nobility and the clergy with so much
anxiety, that they secretly encouraged the king to attempt to set
some bounds to the further inroads of the third estate, because
even Bailly had no distinct knowledge upon the subject; but
from the manner in which the king received these resolutions,
and the answer which he gave when they were formally commu-
nicated to him, we must conclude, that as early as the I7th of
June, a resolution had been adopted to concede and sanction
reforms, but to put some limits to the bold pretensions of
the third estate. The king refused to receive the president of
the assembly, whom he could not recognise as such, and the
keeper of the seals received the address and conveyed the king's
answer, which was not addressed to the national assembly, but
to the third estate. In this answer the king was made expressly
to declare, that he was very much dissatisfied with the title

* Bailly makes the following distinction : — " L'assemblee arriit pour se
constitaer« elle dScrHe comme souveraine d^ qu'elle est constita^."

§ I.] FRANCS Tllili JULY 1789. S9

which the deputies of the third estate had assumed^ and with the
manner in which they had designated the two other estates'!'.

The situation of the court was in the highest degree precarious^
and it has therefore been said with great justice, that the steps
which were taken^ as well as the constant vacillation which was
exhibited, were injurious to the monarchy; it would however
be very difficult to say, whether any course which could at that
time have been adopted would have served to stem the current
of the times. lists of those deputies were printed who attempted
to retard the rapid progress of revolutionary movement, and the
consequence was, that wherever these deputies were seen in pub-
lic, they were followed and annoyed by the mob ; so that Bailly
informs us, that he, as president of the assembly, was requested
by two deputies to furnish thein with a certificate to show they
had not been opposed to the resofaitions, in order to protect them
against the violence of the populace, who threatened to bum
their houses. At length a plan was devised on the part of the
court to hold a lit de Juitice composed of the three estates, in
which a kind of constitution was to be suddenly brought for-
ward as emanating from the king ; but the scheme was to be
kept a profound secret. On the 18th the assembly held no
sitting, and on the 19th a very short and: unimportant one only ;
on the 20th the court made an attempt: to prevent the sitting
of the assembly, and on this occasion gave another proof of its
want of skill. Bailly was so very full of his dignitf as presi-
dent of the assembly, that the naweti with which he expresses
himself on the subject may be regarded as a psychological ph»-
nomenon, and therefore he felt this dignity mortally offended,
when it was announced to him at half-past six o'clock on the
morning of the 20th, that it was the king's desire that no sitting
of the assembly should be held on that day. Mirabeau, Si^es
and the advocates in the assembly availed themselves of his in-
jured vanity to rouse him to enthusiasm and to use him accord-
ing to their will. No one placed any serious confidence in such
men as Mirabeau, Siiyes and others, but all relied confidently
upon Bailly and Or^goire as genuine enthusiasts, and therefore

^ " Je d^approuve Texpression r^p^t^e de classes privil^gi^s, que le tiers
^t emploie pour d^igner les deaz premiers ordres. Ces expressions inusit^es
ne sont propres qu'k entretenir un esprit de division absolument contraire k
ravancement da bien de T^tat, puisque ce bien ne pent dtre effectu^ que par le
concooia dea troia ordres qui composent lea ^tata-g^n^raux, aoit qu'ils d^li-
b^nt s^par^ment, soit qu'ils le fasaent en common."

40 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

Mirabeau pushed forward the former and Robespierre the latter,
when any sentimental or patriotic demonstration was required.
The one was a pious visionary, the other sentimental, and both
were the best men in the world ; this world however was de*
ceived, whilst the Talleyrands, Mirabeaus and Dantons laughed
at it and its Baillys, Lafayettes and Gr^goires.

At half-past six o'clock on the morning of the 20th, Bailly was
informed by some of the persons of the court, who however la-
boured against the interests of the court, that the hall of the
assembly was shut and surrounded with guards, and that with-
out the knowledge of the president a notice had been put up, in
which it was declared that the chambers would not be opened,
because it was necessary to make preparations in them for the
royal sitting appointed for the 22nd. In about a quarter of an
hour afterwards the royal master of ceremonies (Dreux Brez6)
communicated the same intelligence to the president by a some-
what imceremonious note, so that he, who had announced the
sitting for eight o'clock, felt himself properly excused by the short-
ness of the time from causing any notification to be made to the
contrary. Bailly answered the master of the ceremonies' note by
one equally laconic*, and proceeded to the place of assembly,
where the deputies were standing in the midst of a crowd of
persons before the outer door of the chamber, after having in
vain demanded admission within its walls. They now prevailed
upon Bailly to conduct them to another place of assembly, where
they might deliberate upon the occurrence which had just taken
place. Mirabeau and all those who had emissaries and inform-
ants about the court knew, and the rest suspected, that a coup
dPitat was intended, and they resolved to set the weak govern-
ment at defiance. They immediately retired to a neighbouring
tennis-court, and there proceeded to hold their sitting. The
whole of this sitting, or more properly speaking standing^ had
something theatrical in its character, which with French tact
was turned immediately to good account. Every one emulated
his neighbour in a display of resolution and courage, under cir-
cumstances in which there was in fact no real danger. A multi-
tude of people accompanied the deputies as they proceeded in
solemn procession through the streets seeking for a shelter : in

* " Je n'ai encore re^ aucun ordre du roi. Monsieur, pour la stance royale,
ni pour la suspension des assemble, et mon devoir est de me rendre k celle
que j'ai indiqu^e pour ce matin a huit heures."

§ I«] FRANCS TILL JULY 1789. 41

the tennis-court there were no seats, and even the president de-
clined to employ the arm*chair which was brought for his use, and
conducted the deliberations of the assembly standing, for there
was only one table and a few benches brought into the court : this
theatriod scene was rendered more characteristic by a number
of academic orations, and gave a singular d^;ree of importance to
the resolution unanimously adopted, and which was as follows: —
^ The national assembly having been convoked with a view of
drawing up a constitution for the kingdom, of restoring public
order,and of declaring the true principles of a monarchical govern-
ment, cannot suffer itself to be impeded in the discharge of those
duties by any obstructions whatever, and it hereby declares, that
wherever the members of its body are met, there is the national
assembly ; it moreover decrees, that all the members now assem-
bled shall bind themselves by a solemn oath never to separate,
or sufler themselves to be separated, and if dispersed to re-as-
semble wheresoever circumstances permit, until the new constitu-
tion of the kingdom be firamed and public order fully established
on a solid foundation/' The whole body of the deputies solemnly
took this oath, and confirmed their public act by their signatures.
There was a single deputy, Martin d'Auch, a jurist and repre-
sentative of Castelnaudry, who indeed subscribed the oath, but
added, not withjutt accord* Full accounts of the annoyance and
persecution to which he was subjected in consequence of his re-
fusal to concur ftdly in the terms of the oath may be seen in
Bailly's ^ M^moires/ He no doubt thought, and certainly not
erroneously, that the administration and taking of this oath were
acts of rebellion. It was not however till the following day,
when the majority of the clergy joined the third estate, that a
legitimate opposition arose out of this illegal separation.

In the meantime the king was besieged by the queen and the
princes, and according to his usual weak and vacillating conduct,
he put off the royal sitting which he had appointed for the 22nd
till the 23rd, caused notice of the change to be given to the pre-
sident on the night of the 21st, and changed the notice, which
Necker had advised him to give to the estates on the 22nd, at
the very time in which the majority of the clergy separated from
the minority, and the minority of the nobles were protesting
against the resolutions of the majority of their estate. The nine-
teen clergy who had allowed their powers to be examined and

42 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

verified in the assembly of the third estate^ prevailed upon one
hundred and forty of their brethren to go to the deputies of the
commons^ just at the very time in which they were holding a
second sittmg in the church of St. Louis in Versailles^ after
having been refused the use of the tennis-court a second time at
the instigation of the count d'Artois. The clergy having thiia
split into two unequal parts, the liberal-minded menben of the
estate of the nobles^ protested against the language which had
been held by a deputation of their estate on the 21st in conse-
quence of a resolution passed by the majority on the 19th.

Murabeau in his ^ Courrier de Provence ^ and the ^ Journal de
Versailles/ availed himself of the address presented by a deputa*
tion of the nobles to the king, to cause such an excitement among
the people, then vehemently embittered against the nobles, that
from that time forward, every one belonging to the class of the
high nobility was vilified and abused in public, without the po-
lice being able to render them either aid or protection. Necker
hoped, by recommending the king of his own accord to propose
a representative constitution, to be able to restrain the con-
tinually increasing impetuosity of the lower classes and the mob,
which had been partly at least artificially roused, and who now
hovered like ravens around the expiring state. The king con-
sented to the plan. This constitution, or as it was said, royal
declaration, was drawn up in Marly, and was to have been made
public in the royal sitting appointed to be held on the 22nd, but

* This protest was signed by forty-four, among whom the name of La-
fayette is not to be found, because he was hampered by the instructions of his

la Touche, la Tour du Pins, de Maubourg, Phelines> Puisaye, Chastenay, de
Lusignan, de Pordieu, de Montesquieu, de Beauharnais, Meaulette, la Coste,
Despr^ de Groslier, Champagni, baron de Harambure, de Montmorenci, de
Toulongeon, de la ELochefoucauld, Dionis du S^jour, Biencourt, Rochechouard,
Alexandre L4uneth, le prince de Broglio, Marnezia, Sarrazin, de Croix, de Cril-
lon, Massone, Fr^teau, and the due d'Orl^ans. [An emigrant, whose manu-
script observations on the ' Histoire de la Conjuration de Louis Philippe Joseph
d'Orl^ans,' I possess, remarks with regard to tvvo others, " Le marquis de
Lancosme a fait peu de tems apres abjuration de ses principes d^mocra-
tiques, et il s'est fort bien conduit depuis cette 6poque unsi que le compte de
Virieu."] These gentlemen declared, that they regretted the length to which
the chamber of their estate had gone, who accoi^ing to their views should have
confined themselves to the expression, "de ses sentimens pour le roi et k
^rter du discours tout ce qui peut rappeler Tid^e d'une funeste division
entre lea ordres, ou pr^enter sur la l^alit^ des imp6ts des principes inadmis-
sibles et indiquer une denonciation de Tun des ordres."

§ I.] PRANOB TILL JULY 1789. 43

which was unexpectedly put off till the 23rd. The scheme drawn
up by Necker was subjected to such alterations on the 22nd in
Versailles^ that he was no longer willing to acknowledge the
declaration which was read as his work, and (w that reason ab»
sented himself from the sitting. We do not venture to specify
these charges particularly, because even Necker himself in his
work on the revolution, pubUshed in 1797^ does not give parti*
oular details; and Bertrand de Moleville appears to us to be
throughout a source on which no reliance can be placed, because
as a historian he was bold enough to continue to play the same
character which he had so long been accustomed to play as a
statesman*.

Necker besides expressly says, that the queen disturbed the
deliberations at Marly respecting the royal declaration, and called
away the king from the council. He adds, that his colleague
Montmorin, who at the time of this unseasonable interruption
was seated near him, immediately whispered to him, that now
all was over with the declaration, for the princes had urged the
queen to disturb the whole proceeding. BaiUy states, that three
deputies belonging to the nobility had awaked him on the night
between the 22nd and 23rd, and informed him that Necker was
dissatisfied in reference to the royal sitting and would withdraw
from the king's service f* In this way the assembly was made
acquainted with the views of the honourable gentlemen, the ex-
tent of whose liberalism reached to the realization of an English
aristocracy, and shown what the whole class of citizens had to
expect from the constitution to be announced to them on the

* In the first edition of this History of the Eighteenth Century, some refer*
ence is made it is true to the ' M^moires Secrets ' of Bertrand de Moleville ;
he is not however to be trusted. He occasionally takes the liberty of invent-
ing whole speeches, as for example, on the occasion of the union of the clergy
with the deputies of the third estate at the end of June. — Beaulieu, Essai, &c.
i. p. 262 : " Quelques ^rivains, entre autres M. Bertrand de Moleville,
rapportent un long discours prononce k cette occasion par M. de Boisgelin,
archev^que d'Aix. L'auteur de ces Essais assistait ^ la stance, et il pent cer-
tifier que M. rarch^vdque d'Aix n'y pronon^a pas de discours." Everything
which can be derived from Necker s work ' Sur la Revolution Fran9aise,' and
from the ' Declaration du Roi ' of the 23rd of May, will be found in the ' Ge-
schichte der Staatsverandernng Frankreichs,' 2r Theil, s. 317 und folgende.

+ Bailly, M^m. i. p. 261 : — " lis me dirent, qu'ils ^toient MM. le baron
Menou, le due d'Aiguillon et le comte Mathieu de Montmorenci, qu'ils ^toient
instruits qu'il y avoit eu beaucoup de debate au conseil tenu le soir ; que M.
Necker n'approuvait point les mesures qui avaient ^t^ prises ; qu'il avait declare
qu'U n'assisterait point k la stance royale, et que toutes les apparences an-
noD^aient qu'il serait renvoy^ dans la joumee."

44 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

23rd. This report was fuUy confirmed by the non-appearance
of Necker in the place which he ought to have occupied among
the ministers at the royal sitting. Mirabeau, who on other oc-
casions was one of Keeker's most vehement opponents^ appeared
therefore on this to lament his absence, and willingly allowed all
the liberal points of the declaration read to the assembly to be
ascribed to the absent minister, whilst all its hateful principles
and commands were assigned to the court and to the ministers
present at the sitting. The whole affair was doubly welcome to
those who wished for a change in the state, because they were
determined, right or wrong, to undervalue ever^ constitution con-
ferred by the king and not drawn up by themselves.

The declaration read before the estates in the sitting of the
23rd was contained in thirty-five articles ; and this royal draft
of a new constitution might at least have served as the basis of
a negotiation with the assembly, had not the presence of the
guards who surrounded the chamber, the words which were put
into the mouth of the king at the commencement and the con-
clusion of his address, and the fifteen preliminary propositions
which he dictatorially prescribed, prevented the meeting from
putting any confidence in the uprightness of the king's liberal
views. The words which were put into the king's mouth on this
occasion were by no means in accordance with his weak and
effeminate character. His ministers suffered him to begin with
reproaches, and aft;erwards he proceeded to assure the assembly
of his determination to maintain the integrity of the ancient laws,
and of his intention to visit every violation of them with his dis-
pleasure {rSprimer les atteintes qui ontpuy itre parties). This
despotic announcement was immediately followed by the fifteen
articles specially directed against all attempts at innovation, and
which constituted the preliminaries to the thirty-five fundamental
articles of the promised new constitution. Of this constitution we
shall take no further notice, because it proved completely abor-
tive, and no means were adopted to compel its acceptance, al-
though it is said 4000 men had been called out for the purpose.

We shall refer to a few points in the fifteen conservative pre-
liminary articles, and to one of the fundamental principles of the
constitution, in order to show, that aft;er all that had happened,
the acceptance of such a constitution was absolutely impossible.
In one of these preliminary articles, everything which had been
done since the 1 7th was declared to be null and void. The prin<-

§ I.] PBANCB TILL JULY 1789. 45

ciple of the separation of the estates into three chambers was
maintained, with the exception of the meeting then assembled,
in which they were to be regarded as one body and to decide
according to majority of votes. A third preliminary article de-
termined, that in all questions involving the abolition of the
privileges of any of the estates, the concurrence of the estate in
question should be considered essential to give validity to the
resolution. A third forbad the assemblies to give publicity to
their proceedings. The government were desirous, when it was
too late, by these preliminary articles, to annul the instructions
which had been given to the deputies by their respective consti-
tuencies, and which were indeed afterwards disallowed by the
deputies themselves, as inconsistent with the design of an assem-
bly of the estates. The article of the proposed constitution to
which we have promised specially to allude was the [twelfth, in
which it is declared, that the king was ready to consent to a
radical reform, but that in its accomplishment the rights of pro-
perty must remain intact. At first sight this would appear to
be a necessary condition of every political reform ; but in a case
like this, where no radical reforms could be effected without the
complete abolition of feudal privileges, it sounds somewhat sin-
gular, that everything, whose abolition the great body of the
people earnestly desired, should be expressly designated by the
name of property*. Mirabeau therefore, in the ' Courrier de
Provence,^ made the most vehement attacks upon this article in
the proposed constitution.

liie commencement and conclusion of the royal speech, which
the king on this occasion repeated from memory, were composed
in the decretal style of parlkiment by Barentin, minister of jus-
tice. At the conclusion of his address he puts language into the
mouth of the king which none of his royal predecessors had
ever ventured to employ against the parliament. The speech
began with a few dictatorial sentences, and then the king is
made to utter a declaration which certainly sounded somewhat
peculiar in the good man^s mouth, — that he alone had hitherto
been deeply anxious for the well-being of the people, and that
the case was one of very rare occurrence in which a king has
made it a matter of personal ambition to prevail upon his sub-

* " Les dismes, cens, rentes, droits et devoirs feodaux et seigneuriaux, et g^-
neralement tous les droits et prerogatives utiles ou honorifiques attach & aux
terres et aux fiefs ou appartenans aax personnes."

46 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

jects to come to an agreement with one another respecting the
acceptance of the benefits which he proposed to confer. The
whole concluded with the following sentence : — ^^ I command
yoUj gentlemen^ immediately to separate^ — to assemble early to-^
morrow^ each estate in the chamber appointed for its separate
use, — and there again to begin your sittings. At the same time^
I command the chief master of ceremonies to prepare the cham-
bers for your reception/' These words were the signal for a
revolution. Either they ought not to have been put into the
mouth of the king, or, as Buonaparte had on the 18th Brumaire,
his advisers should have had a number of grenadiers with charged
bayonets in readiness, prepared to drive out every deputy from
the place of assembly who exhibited any desire to remain after
the departure of the king.

Up till this time, BaiUy's academic phrases, his inspiration
and sentimental patriotism had been admirably fitted for the
contingencies which had arisen, but now another tone was abso-
lutely demanded, which was speedily adopted by Mirabeau, Pe-
tion, Buzot and others; and although Bailly continued to be
treated with every demonstration of respect, it was rather on
account of the electors of Paris whom he represented, than from
any regard for himself. The members of the third estate re-
mained in the hall in spite of the king's command; Bailly
appeared too courtly to give a prompt answer to the chief master
of ceremonies when he reminded him of the king's desire, and
Mirabeau therefore assumed the lead. Bailly avoided a dispute
with the master of ceremonies, who had returned into the hall
to repeat the king's command, by answering, that he must con*
suit the assembly*. Immediately afler the withdrawal of the
king, Mirabeau encouraged the assembly to resistance by very
vehement expressions, and at the same time gave a rude and
violent reply to the royal messenger, although he was by no
means justified in assuming the duties of the president. On this
occasion, he sent verbally to his own king a message similar to
that which he had sent in print in 1777 to Frederick II., the
landgrave of Hesse, in consequence of the prince's sale of his
Hessians to the English t* Mirabeau's expression — ^^ Tell your

♦ Bailly, i. 272: — " Monsieur, Tassembl^e s'est ajournee apr^s la seance
royale." " Je ne puis la separer sans qu'elle en ait delib6re." "Est- ce l^ votre
r^ponse, et puis-je en faire part au roi?" " Oui, Monsieur."

t Mirabeau's first and much-read ' Essai sur le Despotisme' was written in

§ I.] FBANOB TILL JULY l789« 47

master . • • • that toe shall only retire from the chamber at the point
of the bayonet/^ — was a violation of all the proprieties of form and
prudence« Bailly^ who was highly diasatisfied with Mirabeau'a
interference, disapproved of his language, and Mirabeau in his
letters to his constituents, published in his journal afterwards,
omitted the offensive form of his message. The same course was
adopted in all subsequent reports of the occurrences of the day,
till Beaulieu in 1801 first directed public attention to the fact,
and showed how much more eloquence there was in the original
words, uttered in a voice of thunder, and enforced by the dread-
ful expression of Mirabeau's Medusa-head, than in what he
afterwards is reported to have said*.

The courtier undoubtedly made no mention whatever of Mira-
beau's manner, of the words which he employed, and of the
bayonets, all which it would have been impossible to state to the
king ; but he must necessarily have made him acquainted with the
fact of their refusal, which the king should have met in a very dif-
ferent manner from that which he really adopted. He made the
same sort of indolent and weak reply on this occasion which he
had previously given to the shameless question of the duke of
Orleans before the parliament in 1787* He said, ^^Ifihegen^
tlemen of the third estate refuse to retire from the chiunber, they
must be allowed to rematn-f.^* The fact of the government having
collected the household troops and a number of soldiers around
the place of assembly, and not venturing to make any use of
them, furnished a new ground for believing that the court was
full of evil intentions, but had neither courage nor power to at-

his twentietli year and printed in Switzerland ; the ' Avis aux Hessob et autres
Feiiples de I'AUemagne vendas par leurs Princes k TAngleterre/ was first
IMTinted in Cleves in 4to» and afterwards in Amsterdam in oat sheet Svo in
1777 : this masterly appeal to the German people will be also found appended
to the third edition of the ' Essai sur le Despotisme/ Paris, Le Jay, 1 792.

* The first part of Bttaulieu's 'Essais Historiques sur les Causes et les Effets
de la Revolution de Prance, avec des Notes sur quelques Ev^nemens et quelqoes
Institutions k Paris/ an. ix. 1801, contains a more complete account and col-
lection of the documents and original reports than any other history of the
year 1789. We do not indeed subscribe to his views and opinions. At p. 256
we find Mirabeau's fearful words : — " Les communes de France ont r6solu de
d^lib^rer ; nous avons entendu les intentions qu'on a 8Ugg6r6es au roi, et voue.
Monsieur, ne sauriez 6tre son organe aupres de Tassemblde nationale, vous qui
n'avez ici ni place, ni voix, ni droit de parler, vous n'6tes pas fait pour nous
rappeler son discours : allez dire k votre maitre que nous sommes ici par la
volonte du peuple, et qu'on ne nous en arrachera que par la puissance des
baionnettes,'*

t "Si Messieurs du tiers ^tat refusent de quitter la salle, qu'on les y laisse."

48 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

tempt to carry through any of their designs. The plan of send-
ing workmen into the chamber with a view to drive out the de-
puties by hammering was so absurd and contemptible, that the
measure cannot be ascribed to any higher source than that of a
master of ceremonies or court-page.

Mirabeau's vehement expressions, and the victory which he
gained over the king and his master of ceremonies, prompted a
number of members of the assembly, who were by no means very
republican in their sentiments, to mount the tribune. Camus,
Si^yes, Barnave, Potion, Garat, Glaizet, and fiuzot, one after
another, either made the boldest proposals to the assembly or
defended those which were brought forward by others. There
can however be no doubt that Mirabeau, as weU as the abstract
and systematic zealots to whom we have referred, would with
difficulty, and probably not at all, have gained the upper hand,
had the two other estates quickly and wiUingly united with the
third ; for the resolutions so oflFensive to the king and derogatory
to his dignity which were adopted were passed by a very small
majority, notwithstanding all that had occurred since the I7th :
493 voted for theur approval and 340 against The motion for
the adoption of the resolution was brought forward by Barnave,
who added a second, by which the persons of the deputies were
declared to be inviolable, which was also voted by a large ma-
jority, and thus the courage of the most timid was re-animated
and assured. The personal inviolability of the deputies was not
only decreed, but a species of ban was pronounced against all
authorities, civil or military, who should suffer themselves to
be employed as instruments for the execution of the royal com-
mands against the representatives of the people*. The king
failed in energy, and did not offer the determined resistance to
those measures which he ought to have done ; on the contrary,
he conceded to obstinate insolence what he had refused to hum-
ble and earnest petitions, and from this time forward the whole

* " L'assembMe nationale declare que la personne de chacun des d^put^s est
inviolable, que tous individus, toutes corporations, tribunal, cour ou commis-
sion, qui o&eraient pendant ou apr^ la pr^sente session, poursuivre, rechercher,
arrdter ou faire arreter, d^enir ou faire d^tenir un depute, pour raison d'au-
cnnes propositions, avis, opinions ou discours par lui faits aux ^tats-g^n^raux,
de mSme que toutes personnes qui pr^teraient leur ministire k aucuns des dits
attentats dc quelque part qu'ils soient ordonn^s, sont infames et trattres k la
nation et coupable de crime capital. L'assembl^e nationale arr^te que dans
les cas susdits elle prendra toutes les mesures n^cessaires pour faire rechercher,
pour suivre et punir ceux qui en seront les auteurs, instigateurs ou ex^teurs."

§ I.] PRANCB TILL JOLT 1789. 49

power of the state passed like a chann from his hands into those
of the leaders of the third estate.

The consequence was that the king and his court were again
obliged to entreat Necker to undertake the charge of the public
business^ from which he had now withdrawn for several days*
He became the idol of the people, and he and his whole family
were delighted with the honours which at this moment were
heaped upon him, although the admiration entirely ceased as
early as the following year. They willingly suffered themselves
to be made the tools of such men as the Talleyrands, Mira-
beaus, and others, who found it advantageous to their views to
deliver speeches concerning freedom. Necker therefore even per*
suaded the king — ^what indeed under the existing circumstances
might have been advisable — openly to renounce the measures
which Barentin and Breteuil had persuaded him to adopt, and
to endeavour to prevail upon the deputies of the two higher
estates to yield to the demands of those of the third, and unite
with their assembly. As early as the 24th, 150 of the clergy
who had submitted their powers for verification in the church of
St. Louis formed a permanent union with the third estate. On
the 25th their conduct was imitated bj eight of the clergy of a
higher rank, and on the 26th six bishops presented themselves
in the assembly, among whom were Talleyrand Perigord, bishop
of Autun, and Juign^, archbishop of Paris. On the 25th, forty-
seven members from the estate of the nobles forsook their own
body and joined the tiers Stat, and among them the duke of Or-
leans. The number of those who were dissatisfied with the con-
duct of the majority of their order was mdeed much greater than
forty-seven, but many were restrained from following their ex-
ample, as was the case with Lafayette, by the express instruc-
tions received fix)m their constituents. A step was now resolved
upon by the court, for which it was neither entitled to nor re-
ceived any thanks, but which rather necessarily called forth new
efforts and gave rise to new pretensions on the part of the violent
agitators. The king, by a letter, prevailed upon the minority
of the clergy and the majority of the nobles to join the common
assembly on the 27th of June. This occurred at the same time
in which the people, by universal rejoicings, eulogies in the news-
papers and journals, and the most splendid fireworks, were cele-
brating and doing honour to Bailly in consequence of his ener-
getic resistance to the mandates of the crown, and when Keeker's

VOL. VI. E

60 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIR8T BIVI8ION. [CH. I.

name was everywhere associated with that of Bailly in the
mouths of the people.

It is evident from the account, which Bailly himself has given
us in the very commencement of the second part of his memoirs,
of a conversation between him and Necker, how totally unequal
such men as Bailly and Necker were to the undertaking which
was committed to them by the innumerable periodicals, news-
papers and placards of the year 1789. Both of them speak like
a book ; neither of them appears to be the least aware of the real
condition of things, but each continues to indulge in his own
dreams. How is it otherwise possible that Bailly should have
approved of the pretensions of the Parisian women, or that
Necker should have endured the scandalous audacity of the
people, who at that time exhibited in the Palais Royal the prelude
to the subsequent assemblies of the sovereign people, and took
the part of the soldiers who were punished by their superiors for
breaches of military discipline ? The electors of the city of Paris
did not at the commencement attempt to carry out their resolu-
tion of formmg a kind of second (Parisiim) national assembly.
They were afraid to act in direct contravention of the authority of
the government, and to prolong their sittings ; but now, in spite
of the authority of the superior magistrates and of the prSvdt de9
marchandiy who was then president of the town-council, they
began again to hold assemblies, and act as if they themselves
constituted a legal body. Bailly, who was an elector and deputy
of the city, and then president of the national assembly, had
several times attempted in vain to induce the minister (Ville-
deuil) in whose department it was to allow the electors the pri-
vilege of holding assemblies ; but he had always refused, and
Bailly admits that he was right. Encouraged by the resistance
which had shed such a high degree of glory on their deputies in
the late transactions at Versailles, the electors again met together
on the 25th, in contempt of the prohibition, and therefore con-
stituted themselves as it were into a college. They were pre-
vented it is true by the proper city authorities from holding their
assemblies in the Hotel de Yille, but they selected a room in the
Museum, Rue Dauphin^, and immediately sent a deputation to
Versailles. Bailly not only procured this deputation an audience
in the national assembly, but allowed himself to be strewed with
their proiuse incense. The spokesman of the embassy (Moreau
de St. Mery) employed the most splendid academic eloquence

$ I.] FRANOS TILL JULY 17B9. 61

to exalt Bailly to the stars^ and the bitter did not fail to return
like for like. He assigned seats of honour in the national as-
aembly to the deputation of an illegal body, who should never
have been admitted within its walls ; but he himself admits that
he lived long enough to see to what evil consequences this dan-
gerous example led^.

The immediate effect of the interference of the tumultuous
^semblies in the Palais Royal with the exeroise of military dis-
cipline was, that the city police was no longer sufficient to repress
the violence and tumult of the lower classes of the people, who
were roused into fury by means of every description, and that
the authorities no longer ventured to employ the Swiss troops ;
the superintendence of public order therefore was necessarily
committed to the French guards, who were 4000 strong. This
strong regiment filled the posts alternately in Paris and Versailles,
whither companies were sent from time to time, which relieved
each other. The soldiers of this regiment were the more easily
seduced from their duty by means of money and courtezans, in
consequence of their disUke to the due de ChatelSt and the useless
severity of his discipline, which formed a strong contrast to that
of his predecessor the due de Biron, to whom they were warmly
attached. The defection of the French guards and their adop-
tion of the cause of the people was effected by a nobleman, who,,
like Lafayette and Bailly, was filled with an enthusiastic longing
for the improvement of the miserable condition of the people.
This man was Izam, marquis de Valady, who at a later period
became a member of the national convention, and was one of
those who fell a sacrifice during the reign of terror. In 1789
he served as an officer in the guards, and was sedulous in ex-
horting them not to suffer themselves to be employed by the
enemies of public freedom against the friends of this noble cause.
The effect of the various means employed by the rich and di-
stinguished opponents of the old regime to win over the guards
began to appear as early as the 84th. The archbishop of Paris
was accused of having thrown himself at the king's feet in order
to induce him to do what was done on the 20th and 23rd \ when
therefore his house was attacked on the 24th, and his life in
danger, the guards refused to employ their arms for his protec-

* " La deputation/' he %%y%, ** a ix.€ iDvit^e a s'asseoir, k assister k la
stance ; et ce sont les premiers Strangers qui out re9u cet honneur n prodigue
depuM,"

e2

52 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I*

tion. When on the 27th the public demonstrations of respect
were made in honour of the patriotic Bailly and Necker, and
the people indulged in excesses against those who were called
aristocrats^ the guards also refused to act against their fellow*
citizens.

The disobedient soldiery were extolled as patriots^ led about
in triumph, loaded with presents and treated, till they became
so bold as to disobey the command not to leave their barracks^
and went about among the people. These breaches of discipline
were overlooked for three days, but at length, on the 30th, eleven
of the most forward were arrested and sent to the Abbaye (a mi-
litary prison) ; the consequence was that they were immediately
rescued by the people. The liberated guards were led in triumph
to the Palais Royal, and looked upon as patriots who had suffered
in the cause of the people ; and the masses there assembled, who
had already sent deputies to the national assembly on the 26th,
resolved to make an application in favour of the guards. Bailly
states that, although contrary to order, he had procured an au-
dience for the deputies on the 26th, with the view of avoiding a
greater tumult, allowed the leader of the deputation to deliver
an address and given him a formal reply*. In consequence of
this precedent, the assembly found itself constrained to admit
the second embassy, which was to present a petition on the 1st
of July in behalf of the guardsmen ; and yet the national assem-
bly, which was just then strengthened by the adhesion of the
two higher estates, clearly saw that it was altogether repugnant
to law for them to mix in the afiSur ; they therefore apparently
refused to receive the deputies, but adopted a middle course.
Bailly had concerted measures with Necker; and the national
assembly, without any reference to the meetings at the Palais
Royal, made an application in favour of the soldiers, who were
pardonedf*

* '^ Quel^Ke hr^gularitS ^'il eiU k recevoir une deputation de personDes in-
connaes et i^nies sans qualit^^ j'observai k I'assembMe qu'il y aurait du dan-
ger au rrfiu, etj'obiien leur admiinon,'*

f Baill^^ vol. ii. p. 4, relates his conversation with Necker respecting this
embarrassing affair, and observes : " Ses principes k cet ^gard ^toient ceux de
Tassembl^, qui improuvait toute ^eate populaire, et qui I'avait fait connaitre
en faisant respecter par ce peuple ane consigne iU^;ale contre laquelle elle r6-
clamait, mai$je Ivi obtervai ausai le danger de la ahhite. On ne pouvait pas
se proposer de reprendre ces hommes, retires de la prison et actuellement sous
la sauvegarde du peuple. II fallait done, coupables ou non, leur donner leur
liberty, mais d'une mani^re qui ne compromit pas Tautorit^. Nous convinmes
qu'il fallait t&cher que Tassembl^e les recommandftt k la bont6 du roi." .

§ I.] FRANCE TILL JULY l789. 53

Necker gave the clearest proof of his want of knowledge of the
real state of afiairs^ by recommending at this moment the insti-
tution of a citisKen guard in Paris, such as was employed in his
native city, in order to avoid the necessity of employing soldiers
against the people*. In this the Parisians, after having formed
themselves into a species of national assembly of electors, pro-*
cured from the minister himself an army, of which the r^ment
of guards which deserted the royal cause and was paid from the
dty chest afterwards formed the kernel. However readily all
the opponents of the existing order of things fell in with the idea
of a citizen guard, the queen, the princes, and all the friends of
the old rigimey saw clearly that Necker's hand was by no means
powerful enough to guide the helm of the national ship in the
dreadful storm which was beginning to rage ; they however un-
happily recommended the weak king to select men for ministers
in Us stead, who were desirous of effecting by the strong hand
of power what was utterly impossible. The idea no sooner got
abroad that the king intended to remove Necker from the
management of public affairs, and to maintain the old regime by
mihtary force, than tumultuous and predatory bands of ruffians
began to show themselves in Paris, and then throughout the
whole kingdom, who committed excesses of every description
and forced the citizens of all classes quietly to provide themselves
with arms. The same members of the assembly who were the
secret contrivers of this machinery, then succeeded in procuring
a decree by which this general arming was recognized as legal.
They procured an address from the national assembly to the
king, in which they required the establishment of a national
guard throughout the whole kingdom, and before any answer
could be received from the king they took measures for the rea-
lization of their demand.

At the very moment in which the people were engaged. in
arming for their self-defence, the unholy party of licentious un-
improvables, as well as the frivolous circle which surrounded the
queen, began to entertain the idea of having recourse to a coup
ffeiaL A considerable number of regiments, especially the

* Loc, cit, p. 5 : " Mons. Necker me dit, que le meilleur moyen de rem^er aox
agitations et aux troubles qui avaient lieu dans Paris, ^tait d'^blir une garde
bourgeoise. Mons. de Bonneville, ^ecteur de Paris, en avait d6j& fait la pro-
position k I'assembl^ des ^ecteurs, tenue au Mus^e le 26 Juin. J'ignore'si
Mons. Necker ^toit instruit de ce vceu, ou s'il y pensa lui-mdme, en appliquant
k la siiret^ et ii la police de Paris ce qui se pratique k Geneve."

54 FIFTH PBRIdO. — FIRST DtVIBlON. [CH. I.

Swiss and (German regiments in French paj^ received orders
from the 2nd till the 9th of July^ to concentrate around Paris
and marshal Broglio was appointed to the command ; the mar^
shal and his staff came to Versailles. This operation was to
be kept a profound secret*; but Lafajette^ Mirabeau^ Talley-
rand and many others of the higher estates5 were too intimately
acquainted with the court and too superior to those who were
recommended by the princes^ to allow the designs of their oppo*
nents to escape their observation^ add Mirabeau revealed the
whole scheme in a remarkable speech which he delivered on the
8th. In this speech he demanded the adoption of an address to
the king, in which he should be earnestly besought to remove
the troops from Paris, and immediately to institute the proposed
citizen-guard for the preservation of the public peace. The Pa-
risians did not wait for the royal ordinance for the purpose of
organisation, but regarded the removal of Necker and his liberal
colleagues from the ministry as a signal for military movements
and rebellion. It was publicly known in Paris on the 12th that
Necker had departed quickly and secretly from the coimtry;
that his colleagues^ St. Priest, Montmorin, La Lucerne, had
retired, and that Breteuil and the absolutists, the due de la
Vauguyon, Broglio, Foulon, Laporte, La Galeizi^re and Baren-
tin, had taken the reins of government t this led to a general com-
motion. A tumultuous mob marched through the streets, and
orators who promoted the rebellion, presented themselves in all
directions in the Palais Royal. The measures of resistance which
were adopted were weak, and rather calculated to inAise the
spirit of rebellion into the whole population of the city than to
repress the tumult.

* Besides what is said in the text, another reason is assigned in the ' M^-
moires de Ferri^res/ vol. i. p. 72 : " La reine, le comte d'Artois, les princes, ies
courtesans, les tninistres, tes Mques, les nobles etitourt^ d'espiohs, de domes-
tiques infid^les, suivis j usque dans I'iatimit^ de la confiance, jusque dans le
repos de la nuit, n'exprim^rent pas un sentiment, ne marqu^rent pas an ge8te>
qui ne f(kt rapport^.'*

§ II.] PAANOB TILL JULY 1790. 55

§11.

FBANOB FROM THE 13TH OF JULY 1789 TILL THB 14tH OF
JULY 1790.

No one had foreseen the complete oyerthrow of the monarchy
in the days from the 19th till the I7th of July ; it was therefore
indisputably brought about more by the folly of the court, the
high nobility and clergy, than by the tumultuous proceedings of
the mob, which was a mere machine* In the riots which took
place on the 12th, during which toll-bars and toll-houses were
broken down and burnt, and all sorts of mischief perpetrated,
there was manifest evidence of the influence of the Breton
deputies, who had formed a club in Poissy, which may be re-
garded aft the origin of the jacobin club in Paris ; but this club
only attained an important influence from the unseasonable and
brutal expressions and measures of the courtiers^ nobles and
clergy, who preferred the splendid slavery of a court life to any
kind of social freedom. It was the appearance of the German
and Swiss troops accustomed to passive obedience, and particu-
larly the haughty prince de Lambesc, by his gestures and his
mad charge sword in hand through the Place Louis Quinze and
the gardens of the Tuileries, which properly speaking alone did
violence to the feelings of the Parisians in favour of freedom ; for
the ^ Injuries of a Pedestrian,' which were brought conspicuously
forward in all the papers of those days, produced bu^ an insig-
nificant efibct. We have the testimony of an eye-witness* whose
authority is above suspicion, that the thirty regiments, whose
march was greatly delayed by inadequate supplies and arrears of
pay^ were really intended by the unimproveables of the court to
disperse the assembly and restore the old order of things. The
conviction that one extreme could only be destroyed by an op-
posite extreme^-^hat the rude power and deeply-rooted preju-
dices of the great would only yield to the blind delusion of the
flmatioal masses — caused the most moderate and intelligent men
of the age for a while to step aside and to give full scope to the

• Beaiiliea> Essais Historiqttes, vol. i. p. 284, says : " Beaucoop de personnes
ont rdus^ de croire, qu'un parti de gentilhommes et de princes ett form^ le
prqjet de disperser I'assembl^, et encore moins que ce projet fftt sur Ic point
de 8*exlcater. Oi qta now mwu tm nont-mimeB d VenailUs h cette ipoque,
j^mt icefue mm avons appris dqpuis, wnu met ^ mime de cert\fkr le contraire"

56 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

visionaries and fanatics. These inspired lovers of freedom placed
themselves at the head of the people on the 12th, who were
marching through the city without leaders, and used every
means in their power to inflame the popular indignation.

One of the most remarkable of those who in these days con-
tributed the most to kindle the patriotism of the people and to
encourage them to resistance by vehement harangues, was an
old schoolfellow of Maximilian Robespierre, named Camille
Desmoulins. This young, impetuous and clever advocate was
afterwards influenced much more by the power of Danton's
warm, immoral, but kindly nature, than by the cold, tenacious,
envious and domineering disposition of Robespierre; in the earlier
part of his career, however, Robespierre, who was deputy from
Arras, was intimately connected with Camille. To his great vex-
ation, Robespierre played but a very subordinate part among the
distinguished men of the first national assembly ; he first became
a man of importance when he began to rule the town-council of
Paris, through the instrumentality of the jacobin club. From
the very commencement Camille was the leading orator in the
coffee-houses of the city and in the Palais Royal, but he was
also unhappily the first who broached and announced the dread-
frd doctrine, that freedom could only be established by murder
and blood. His written appeals were as vehement as his speeches,
and his bold gesticulation imparted to his words a double power.
From the 11 th and 12th he continued publicly to proclaim war
upon the higher estates, and to announce murder and assassina-
tion to the enemies of the people ; but in spite of the cruel and
violent language which he employed, he was a noble enthusiast.
Robespierre, on the other hand, was a sturdy, envious, vain de-
magogue, who was bom and educated to win that class of men
which in former times and now again are accustomed to collect
around missionary preachers, Jesuits, capuchins and methodists.

In the commencement of these public commotions, Camille
Desmoulins published a journal entitled ' Revolutions in France
and Brabant,' which was the forerunner of Marat's * Friend of
the People,' and preached up the complete annihilation of the
existing order of things. From the tone of this journal one can
scarcely fail to be convinced, that he had the feelings of a cannibal
like Marat, for he does not hesitate to declare the title of de^
fender of popular Justice (procureur cfe la lanteme) to be a title
of honour, and yet he was led astray by his inspiration for

§ II.] FBANOB TILL JULY 1790. 57

fireedom. His later journal, ' The Old Fi'ancUcan' {le vieux Cor^
deUer), was also murderous in its language and sentiments, and
was the cause of the most cruel and barbarous crimes ; but these
unhappy excesses were all the result of Desmoulins' delusion,
that a new system of law and morality could only be raised on
the ruins of the old, as the well-disposed Gr^ire also believed
with r^ard to religion.

On the 12th of July, Camille, with the same glow of inspira-
tion and eloquence which pervades his journals, mounted one of
the temporary tribunes erected in the Palais Royal, called his
fellow-citizens ^^to arms!^' and the whole multitude by which
he was surrounded echoed the appeal. Armed with a sword
and pistol he placed himself at the head of the masses, which
proceeded to march through the streets ; the shops and theatres
were closed, and the soldiers and people soon found themselves
in hostile array against each other in the Place Louis Quinze
and the Champs Elys^s. On this day also CamiUe Desmoulins
first displayed the distinctive emblem which constituted the
rallying signal of the patriots, first in Paris and then throughout
the whole kingdom; an emblem by which the majority, con«
sisting of the friends of democratic principles, might always be
distinguished from the minority, or defenders of the ancient
feudal privileges. The first emblem was a green branch, and
next a bow of green riband ; but because green was the colour
of the enemy of the people and prince of the nobles, the count
d'Artois, it was afterwards changed to the tricolor, consisting of
the royal white and the two colours of the city of Paris, which
continued to be the emblem of the defenders of the sovereignty
of the people, whilst the white cockade was the designation of
those who maintained that the king was the vicar of God upon
earth.

As early as the 12th arms of all sorts were carried away by
force firom the shops of the gunmakers and sword-manufacturers,
and immediately afterwards, the irresolution of the government^
the repugnance of the most distinguished officers and civilians
to the newly-restored ministerial and court despotism, and many
other rarely or perhaps unparalleled concurrent circumstances,
combined to render a formd military organization of the citizens
possible. Several hundreds of the French guards, incensed at
the appearance of foreign troops and the brutality of their com-
manders, had united with their fellow-citizens on the night be-

58 PIPTIt l>EItlOD» — PtRST DlVtSION^ [CH* I.

tween the 1 2th and 18th in an attack upon the German soldiers,
who were encamped In the Champs Elys^s t the royal autho-
ritioa were greatly alarmed by this event The troops were
withdrawn firom the city at the very moment in which it was
threatened with murder and pillage by the unbridled mob^ and
therefore the long-desired military organisation of the national
guard and the incorporation of many of the French guards was
not only to be excused, but had in fhct become almost indispen-
sable. The national or citizen guard of Paris was then organized
by the sub-ofBcers of the regular military, to whom at that
time in France^ as at present in England, the whole mechanical
part of the service was entrusted, and from among whom sprung
most of the greatest generals of the revolution. There imme-
diately sprung up a dreadfhl army, when on the night Just re-
ferred to, the tocsin was sounded in the whole of the sixty
divisions of the city. The citizens themselves instituted a spe*^
cies of democratic police for the safety of property and life, and
sent out patrols, and the electors of the city availed themselves
of this moment of terror and confusion to realise the privileges
already extorted from the government, to make themselves
masters of the capital, and to form as it were a second public
magistracy*

It was said that the old magistracy, which had a president
(privdt des tmtrchandi) appointed by the court and cleaving to
the social usages of the middle ages, no longer enjoyed the confix
dence of the citizens, and therefore it was necessary to strengthen
the public authority by the appointment of men on whom the
city was disposed to place tlie Mlest reliance. This revolutionary
Council now proceeded to name a committee of safety from
amongst its members, who were to enroll all the citizens of the
sixty districts of Paris in battalions and companies, give them a
military organization, and at the same time to provide the means
of paying the soldiers of the French guards who were incorpo-
rated with the people. A magniloquent proclamation was im*
mediately issued for the organization of the national guard. It
was declared in the proclamation that this new national guard
should in Aiture consist of sixteen legions, and the whole body
of 48,000 men. This force was to be placed under the orders of
a general commandant, under whom a lieutenant and a major*^
general were to hold commissions, and these three to constitute
the general staff. In addition to this, each of the legions was to

§ II.] FBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 59

have its own particular staffs the city to appoint the officersi and
every soldier to wear a red and blue hatband, the colours of the
city. This citizen army was actually called into existence before
a deputation was sent to the king to request him to remove the
troops from Paris, and to sanction the extraordinary measures
which had been adopted by an illegal assembly. According to
Bailly's testimony, the commencement of the institution of this
novel force which the city of Paris arrogated to itself and con-
tinued to increase till its town-council finally tyrannized over
the convention, and by means of the convention over the whole
kingdom, was made as early as the 9th and 10th, so that there
was time enough to take similar steps in all the great cities, be-
fore Necker's dismissal becatne the signal for a general rising.
On the 1 1th, when at table, Necker received a note from the
king, in which the latter besought him in a friendly manner
quickly and secretly^ to retire fit>m France. This news soon
reached the ears of the Parisians, and Camille Desmoulins and
his companions availed themselves of the minister's removal aft
a pretence for exciting a popular commotion. The people car-
ried the busts of Necker and the duke of Orleans in procession,
in order to do honour to these two friends of the people $ the
royal Oerman r^ment made an attempt to stop the procession,
and in consquence came into bloody collision with the masses of
whidh it was composed. The result of the strife was doubtflil,
because only a very small number of the troops then encamped
around Paris were in quarters at .the Tuileries, and these Were
not reinforced even on the 13th. The most of the regiment*
were at Sevres, St. Cloud and St. Denis, and some of them re-
mained quite tranquil in the Champ de Mars, whilst on the same
day the Parisian military force destined to act against them
was organized.

These new levies were strengthened by numerous deserters
Grom the newly recruited troops, consisting of those whose sen->
timents harmonized with the party of the movement^ as well as of
those who only looked for the best paymasters* On the evening
of the 13th, the city guard, which then performed the duties,
now discharged by the ierffents de Mky offered their services to
the committee of public safety, and the French guards no longer
joined the citizens in small numbers, but, with the exception of
the officers, came over to the popular cause in a body. This was
the consequence of the reception which the new government of

60 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CU. I.

Paris had had from the national assembly. The national as-
sembly did not indeed by any means approve of the foimal
revolt of the Parisians against the royal authority and the erec-
tion of a new force consisting of the armed citizens themselves ;
but they resolved to give their most vigorous support to the
petition of the corporation of Paris for the confirmation of their
new council and of the erection of a burgher guard, as well as
for the removal of the troops from the city and its neighbour-
hood. Eighty deputies of the national assembly, selected from
all the provinces, together with all the deputies of the city of
Paris, united with a deputation from the corporation, waited on
the king with their petition, but he declined to comply with its
prayer. The king's refusal called forth a hostile resolution from
the national assembly, of whose tendency Bailly has given us a
short but striking representation*.

The immediate consequence of this decree was the adhesion
of the city guard and of the French guards on the evening of
the 13th, and an attack upon the Hospital of the Invalids in the
morning. On this occasion they compelled the authorities by
threats to deliver up to them 30,000 stand of arms and 20 pieces of
cannon, which had been refused two days before. Immediately
after this success, the French guards formed along the banks of
the Seine' and pointed their cannon against the king's troops,
who were encamped on the frurther side of the river, but did not
venture to move. The only point from which it was now pos-
sible to annoy the city and to facilitate any attack which might
be contemplated on the part of the king's troops was the Bas-
tille, so infamous as a state prison. The small extent of this
fortress did not afibrd room for any very considerable garrison,
and it was impossible to defend it with success against any
serious attack ; but had it been provided with good artillerymen,
with abundant supplies, and even a small number of resolute
defenders instead of a corps of invalids f^ the tumultuous mob
of Paris would have hesitated to attack it. The chief object of
the attack was the destruction of a stronghold from which the

* Vol. ii. pp. 96-98. Bailly gives the resolution of the assembly at full length,
and adds : " L'assembl^e, par cet arrdt, interdisait la ressource de la banque-
route sous peine d'un soul^ement g^n^ral ; elle effrayait les ministres, qui
sont avertis que les suites peseront sur leurs t^tes ; en parlant des conseils du
roi, eUe vouloit atteindre plus haut ; elle annon^ait du danger k ceux qui met-
taient et la chose publique et le peuple en danger."

t The whole garrison consisted of eighty-two invalids and thirty-three Swiss.

§ !!•] FRANCS TILL JULY 1790. 61

royal troops might overawe the dty, a fact which in our own
times the citizens seem to disregard ; there was however also
a secondary design^ and that was to announce to the kingdom^
by razing this citadel of despotic power^ that despotism in
IVance was no more. This fortress had seen within its walls
Voltaire, Marmontel^ and innumerable other well-known men^
who had been arrested upon lettres de cachet, and the destruc*
tion of the Bastille must therefore have appeared the most suit*
able demonstration^ in order to proclaim to all France the de*
struction of the institutions of the middle ages. The ruins of
this dreadful state prison were moreover an honourable memo*
rial of the courage and resolution of the citizens of Paris in the
arduous struggle to deliver themselves from arbitrary rule.

The storming of the Bastille was effected by a tumultuous
mob composed of some of the guards and a motley crowd of
Parisians, and not by the city militia; when the crowd sue*
ceeded in forcing an entrance, the governor's conduct was pre*
cisely the same as that which was usually pursued by the king*
He had neither resolution enough to risk his own life and that
of the [few invalids and Swiss who formed the garrison and to
defend his post to the uttermost, nor to surrender uncondition*
ally to the assailants. Crowds of infuriated people were first
suffered to penetrate into the inner court and then firing was
kept up, when all hope of defending the fortress was past ; the
consequence was, that many persons — some say nearly a hun-
dred— were killed. This gave rise to a horrible retaliation ; the
people, intoxicated with success and eager for revenge, brutally
murdered the governor, the marquis de Launay, de Losman Sol-
bray the commandant of the garrison, his adjutant, two lieute*
nants, and three invalids. The subsequent conduct of the
multitude was still more horrible than the murder itself; in
their cannibal fury they decapitated their victims, fiixed their
heads upon pikes, and bore them in triumph through the streets
of Paris. This horrible custom gave rise to the formation of a
band of bloodthirsty murderers among the lowest and rudest of
the people, who were inspired with the spirit of tigers, and con-
tinued henceforward to play a most important part on every
fresh outbreak of the new revolution. The crimes and cruelties
of these men were afterwards attributed to that portion of the
French who were the very persons most averse to every deed of
violence.

62 FIFTH PBBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

The complete destruction of the Bastille was first decreed at
a later period^ but it was quite impossible to put any bounds to
the mischiefs practised by the populace after their success in its
capture^ partly because an antimonarchioal direction had been
already taken and promoted by the club at Poissy and by many
of the Parisians also, and partly because it was necessary to
hold up such examples as a terror to the adherents of the old
r^gitae and their creatures. The Palais Royal was changed into
a sort of den of thieves, where not only those assembled who
found their advantage in the complete dissolution of all the
bonds of society, but where consultations were held with respect
to those cruel modes of popular justice which had been com*
menced on the 14th with the murder of the officers of the Bas-
tille, and were afterwards practised throughout the whole of
France. One of the first who fell a sacrifice to the public in-
dignation against the old system was Flesselles, formerly pre-
sident of the town^council (prevdt des marchands)^ who had
fallen under suspicion as chairman of the new college of electors
and been deposed by the committee. He was murdered by the
people as he came out of the Hotel de Ville, and his head like
that of others was carried to the Palais Royal. At a later pe*
riod (on the 22nd) Foulon and his son-in-law Berthier, according
to Eastern usage, were pointed out to the people as the authors
of the general dearth, that they might be disposed of in a similar
manner.

Whilst a new power was organized in the kingdom on the
ISth, the national assembly continued to hold an uninterrupted
sitting during the whole of that day and night, on the day and
night of the 14th and till the 15th, and affected to be fiiU of
Spartan resolution. They pretended to be busily engaged on
the new constitution, unaffected by fears whilst the storms of
revolution M'ere raging around them and everything was threat*
ened with destruction or death. One of the members availed
himself of the occasion for mere rhetorical effect, and said, " On
the morrow indeed we shall no longer be in existence^ but the new
constitution will remain.^' The stroke was well<-calculated and he
won the expected applause, although Bailly admits that there
was in reality nothing to fear*. During these tumultuous pro-
ceedings in Paris, the court remained in such an incomprehen-

* Bailly, vol. ii. p. 98 : " Je n'ai jamais ^t^ fort alarm^ du p^ril que nous
(the deputies) pouvions courir D0us-m6mes."

§ II.] FBANOB TILL JULT 1790. 6S

aiUe feeling of lecuritj, that a grand court-ball waa gtven on the
night between the 13 th and 14th; and even on the firat newa of
the revolt on the 14th, two deputations from the national aaaem-
Uy could obtain nothing more from the king than that the
troops ahould be removed from Paris and the new magistraey
acknowledged, on condition that the president and offioera should
be appointed by the king. On the 1 3th however he held very
different language. During the night the king was informed
that the soldiers had renounoed obedience to their noble officers,
the Bastille waa taken, deeds of violence begun> and a new oMer
of things had been introduced, and therefore it was necessary
quickly to remove the regiments fiurther from Paris; on the
next morning the king took a step, which, under the then exiat-
ing circumstances, must have deprived him of all feelinga of
respect.

The king in person* accompanied by his two brothers, with**
out any signs of royalty and without the observance of any form,
which above all he should at this moment have maintained, pre-
sented himself in the national assembly and greeted its members
by that significant name which they had arbitrarily assumed.
On this interview he publicly declared his own inability and his
despair for the kingdom, and that he placed in their hands the
arrangement of the matters in dispute with the Parisians. What
the king lost on this occasion was only apparently gained by the
ideal and philosophical portion of the awembly, who were in-
spired with a longing desire for a Utopian constitutional mo-
narchy, and which was represented by Bailly, Lafayette and
others, but who never suspected that, like unpractical men, they
were in reality mere tools in the hands of such practical men as
Mirabeau. The assembly sent eighty^two deputies to Paris,
headed by Lafayette, who began at that time to play the great
character which he repeated in 1830, — a character which does
far more honour to his heart and his imagination than to his
understanding. His course however remains quite unexampled
in this respect, that at the end of the piece both in 1793 ^^^
1830, he himself acknowledged that his services had been mis*
used, and that he entertained no suspicion of the fact.

Lafayette and Bailly, as well as the whole of the deputation,
by whom they were accompanied, were received in triumph in
Paris ; they announced the victory over the king and his readi-
ness to make every concession to the people, and confirmed all

64 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

that had taken place, at least temporarily, till the assembly had
come to a resolution on the subject. The highest offices under
the new order of things were afterwards destined for these two
individuals by the people of Paris. On the 16th, the sixty sec-
tions of Paris already formed a great republic, whose centre was
the great council, and whose president was to be the mayor of
the city freely elected ; this office was designed for BaiUy. The
army of this republic, called the national guard, was to be under
the command of Lafayette. On the 16th the enemies of all im*
proVements among the lower and middle classes,*— the whole un-
improveable body of adherents to the feudal system, withdrew,
indisputably with indiscreet haste, from the scene. These were
men who combined polished manners, easy address, and a happy
use of language, in which rude squires and petty dynasts are so
often deficient, with all the pride and arrogance of the high
nobility of Venice, Berne, Germany and England. Artois, the
Polignacs, the most hated princes and their licentious compa-
nions, the generals, and among the rest even Broglio, left the
kingdom and commenced that stream of emigration which con*
tinned to flow from July 1789 till July 1792, and turned the
indignation of all the enlightened men of all parties against
the king. He was undoubtedly led astray by the queen, who
by her own incautious public declaration preferred* a hand-
ful of noble courtiers to millions of the people, whilst her
husband always promised what he never wished to perform.
The king's aunts and his eldest brother were the only parties
who remained behind, till at length he himself attempted to
escape.

Did we not know the contrary, we should be disposed to re-
gard the king's visit to Paris on the 17th as the malicious
recommendation of one of his bitterest enemies, who wished
by the instrumentality of the king to confirm the people in their

* That portion of the nobility who still stood out sent a deputation to the
palace on the 24th of June, in order to thank the king for his declaration of
the 23rd, which was designed to maintain the principle of a separation of the
estates. This deputation first went to Artois, who received them as their pro-
tector, then to the comte de Provence, who gave them no formal answer, and
finally to the queen. M^moires de Ferri^res, vol. i. p. 60 : — " La reine sortit
dans le salon du jeu ; elle tenoit madame par la main et portait le jeune dau-
phin sur son bras. Tableaux d^Iicieux d'une m^re ! douce expression de la
nature ! La reine pr^senta M. le dauphin aux d^put^, leur disant avec beau-
coup de grace, qu'elle le dotmait d la noblesse, qu'eUe lui apprendroit d la chhir
et hla regarder comme leplueferme appui du tr^,"

§ II.] FRANCS TILL JULY 1790. 65

revolt against their ancient rulers and in their dislike to the old
rigimey and to expose Louis in person to the contempt and
scorn of the people. The journey and procession of the court
on their appearance in Paris^ the boldness displayed in putting
forward Bailly as mayor and La&yette as commandant of the
national guard, before their appointments were sanctioned by
the crown, the speeches with which he was greeted, and the
national cockade which was forced on his acceptance, were all
deeply humiliating to the king. From this time forward he
regarded everything which he promised as extorted from him
by force, which however could only hold good as long as vio-
lence endured. The promoters of these innovations soon became
aware of this feeling, and they no longer placed any confidence
in anything which emanated from the court ; the king's word
was no security to the people*.

Previous to this the national assembly had so importunately
urged the immediate recall of Necker, that Dufresne de St. Leon
had been despatched with courier horses in order if possible to
overtake him on his journey and bring him back to Paris. From
the 11th till the 23rd Necker had first travelled to Brussels,
from thence to Basle, and there he first received a long letter
from the king, and one still longer from the national assembly,
which concluded with these words, ^' The king and the nation
eapect youJ' The vain man was intoxicated with delight, and
his daughter (madame de Stael) cannot find words enough to
express her joy and that of her party ; it was in fact the absurd
manner of showing her joy at her father's recall which prompted
Mirabeau, in the very midst of the triumph, to prepare a humi-
liation for him, in order that he might learn not to overvalue
himself and to mistake the triumph of the principles of freedom
for his own. We see at once, from the manner of his triiunphal
entry into Paris, how little he was acquainted with the demo-
cratic spirit of the age from which the whole movement sprung,
and which was wholly opposed to the tone of the saloons;
without alluding to odier points, it is sufficient to say, that he

* Necker, who in this respect use^ the language of a long experience, when
speaking of the half measures recommended by his successors on the 11th of
July, observes : " lis ^prouv^rent aussi. Ton doit le croire, ils ^prouv^rent une
contrariety, bien connue de iou8 ceux qui entrepretment de porter un prince hora
de eon caraetere. On dispute, on combat, on persuade k demi, et d'une pareille
Itttte i^sulte le plus souvent ou une decision qui n'a point de vigueur, ou une
sorte de composition qui ne satisfait aucun syst^me."

VOL. VI. F

66 FIFTH PERIOD* — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

was accompanied in his carriage by his daughter and two Polish
princesses. By the manner in which he speaks of bis own re-
ception, in the second p^ of his work on the revolution, be
furnishes us with abundant proof that he was indeed the idol of
the unpractical portion of the nation, who wished to introduce
the tone of the saloons into politics, but that on the other hand
he found vehement opponents amongst practical men, and espe-
cially in Mirabeau. At the place just referred to, he describes
at great length and with extraordinary self-complacency the
manner in which he was idolized and his talents honoured by
Bailly, Lafayette, and their friends, and the electors and muni-
cipality of Paris ; and we may add to his account, that they ex-
hibited him upon a balcony like a god. It was these originators
of the first untenable constitution who at Neoker's request
effected Bezenval's safety, after be bad been threatened with the
fate of Foulon and B^rtbier« Necker therefore pours out all the
vials of his resentment upon Mirabeau, because be at once de-
prived him of bis splendour* Mirabeau however was completely
consequent in his conduct and acted like a genuine statesman,
however bad his character was in other respects, and however
ambiguous his motives for resisting Necker's application on
behalf of Besenval mity have been.

Mirabeau always kept the practical side of every question in
his eye, and was therefore opposed to prefixing any general de-
clarations upon the rights of man to the constitution, or allow-
ing the intermixture of the speculations of the saloons and the
pretensions of the town-council of Paris in the affairs of the
state. Supported on this occasion by Robespierre and Barnave,
he induced the national assembly to annul the resolution of the
electors and of the municipality of Paris, which had been insti-
tuted only for the moment and in a tumultuary manner. The
chief object of this surprising resolution was the humiliation of
Necker, his daughter, and all those who now hoped to govern
the state by the theories of the saloons, as it had hitherto been
governed by the cabals of the court ; the reason however which
was given for passing the resolution was subtle and striking.
The national assembly declared that it could not recognise the
acquittal of Bezenval, nor acquiesce in the deference shown by
the municipality to the intercession of Necker, because the
electors merely constituted a club, and the representatives of
the city only possessed an executive authority. As it appears

§ II.] FBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 67

firom his own words^*, Necker felt that this resolution implied a
declaration condemnatory of himself, although his friends Baillj,
La&yette, Larochefoucault, and all the barons who had been in
North America, believed that the sera of their influence was now
only beginning. Necker admits that he ought at that moment
to have left France, but he waited till September, and therefore
till the glory which the saloons for twelve years had shed around
him was completely dissipated. All theories were then obliged
to give way to the genial energy of the people, who, unembar-
rassed by any ideas concerning God or his commands, obtained
the victory for the democrats in France, in the same manner as
the English aristocracy have gained their triumphs in India and
China, and the Russian aristocracy in Poland.

Necker and his friends wished to maintain order, and to pro-
ceed upon a systematic plan of improvement, whilst Mirabeau,
the men of Poissy who afterwards formed the jacobin club of
Paris, Sieyes, and all those who were usually distinguished as
adherents of the duke of Orleans, or as the club of Montrouge,
clearly perceived that what was wanted was not eloquent speeches
or philosophical disquisitions, and that there must be no shrink-
ing from any deed of violence, if they meant to be successful in
annihilating a constitution which had subsisted for a thousand
years. Immediately after the public outbreak in July, when the
ancient order of things was dissolved and no new one introduced,
confusion and destruction began to prevail over the whole king-
dom, the whole social system was completely disorganized, and
a mad inspiration for freedom and equality broke down every
distinction and led to the most dreadful excesses. All the works
upon the revolution are filled with the most horrible descriptions
of the disorders, brutality, cruelties and crimes which were per-*
petrated in the name of freedom by men who availed themselves
of the overthrow of the ordinary tribunals of police and justice
to gratify their passions. We do not dwell on this point, be-
cause all this was the necessary consequence of the former neg«

* Necker, vol. ii. pp. 29 and 30 r— " Ce fat M. de Mfrabeaa, I'un des person-
nsgts da moineiit !• plus en vne par ses raret taltna et par son aodaca $ os
fat M. de Mirabeau, tribun par calcul, patricien par go^t, et toujours im-
moral, toujours homme d'esprit ; ce fut lui, qui ayant destin^ le trouble et la
diyisioti Ik I'avancement de sa fortane, se crat appeltf en defensive k contenir
da tons sea moyens le premier retour aax id^es d'ordre et aux aentimens paci«
fiqoes." Lacretelle, vol. vii. p. 20, says of Mirabeau : " C'etolt un orateur
incorrect, bmsqne, p^aible, mais adroit, puissant, redoutable, qndquefois sub-
lisfte. La yerta en eftt fiut on oiatear a€compti."

p2

68 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

lected education and miserable condition of the lower classes^
who were regarded merely as the servants of the upper ranks^
excluded for the most part from all participation in the property
of the soil, and obliged alone to bear all the burthens of the
state. The spirit of the age soon reached the army also. The
officers, who belonged to the nobility, first endeavoured to resist
the movement and to counteract the proceedings of the national
assembly, then emigrated, and the old army was dissolved. A
new army was immediately formed of the national guards, as had
been done in Paris, by means of officers who had either imbibed
an enthusiasm for freedom, or were anxious for a rapid re-orga-
nization of the new order of things, as well as by non-commis-
sioned officers, who were well acquainted with discipline. This
change however necessarily required time, and four years were
consumed before the old royal army, recruited from the dregs
of the populace, was replaced by a truly national force.

In the provinces in which feudalism had been most oppressive,
Provence, Franche Comt^, Alsace and Lorraine, it scarcely re-
quired the vehement stimulants which were applied to excite a
war among the peasants and cause such scenes, as were exhibited
on the banks of the Rhine, Neckar and Main, in the district of
the Saale and Westphalia, in the course of the sixteenth century
in Germany. The casUes of the feudal nobility were reduced
to ashes, tiiey themselves persecuted with fire and sword, and
the name of an aristocrat was sufficient to bring down public
hatred and persecution. A new municipal poUce was soon esta-
blished over the kingdom, travellers were stopped at the most
insignificant places and their passports examined by peasants
and citizens. By the establishment of a committee of police
{comiU des recherches) the national assembly soon made them-
selves immediate masters of the whole police of the kingdom and
government, caused letters to be opened, servants to be interro-
gated, spies to be employed, houses to be entered, papers exa-
mined, seized and carried away on the slightest suspicions, and
the accused to be kept in secret confinement for months. These
measures were indeed rendered necessary by the circumstances,
and constituted a means of defence against the senselessness of
the court, the nobility and the priests ; they were not however
the less tyrannical. The national assembly moreover made
everything in the kingdom, person and property, wholly de-
pendent on its members ; the body was divided into committees

§ II.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1790. 69

which exercised ahnost the whole functions of government in
the various departments of war and diplomacy^ — marine^ legisla-
tion^ tithes, feudal rights, and mintage. The old authorities and
courts soon lost all their distinction ; couriers from the national
assembly were sent in all directions to encourage the peasants
and citizens of the towns quickly to avail themselves of the fa-
vourable moment, in order to deliver themselves completely from
their ancient oppression, and to persecute or annihilate their
former oppressors.

The municipality of Paris, of which BaiUy was at the head, in
its first tumultuary organization was completely democratic, and
was in all its essentials confirmed by the national assembly in
October. Some few alterations were made at that time, but it
was not tiU May 1790 that the common-council of the city re-
ceived that form frt>m the national assembly, which, in the time
of the convention, brought so many evils upon France, because
the municipality of Paris tyrannized over the convention, and
the convention over the whole of France. Till May 1790, each
of the sixty sections of the sovereign communes sent two depu-
ties to the Hotel de Ville, and eighty others were from the be-
ginning added to these 120 representatives of the sovereign
people of the capital. This democratic assembly was afterwards
increased to the number of 300 persons. This assembly was
called the great council of superintendence, and sixty of its mem-
bers alternately formed the executive government of the city.
On the definite organization and new appointment of the several
authorities on the 21st of May 1790, a change was introduced
by which the number of the sections was reduced from sixty to
forfy-eight. These forty-eight sections received a council, com-
posed of thirty-two municipal councillors and ninety-six notables;
the management of the public business was committed to six-
teen administrators, who were presided over by the mayor, as
the chief of the corporation, and he was assisted and advised by
an assessor and two substitutes. The government of the city
was carried on by the coimdl and executive {bureau) ; the mayor
and the sixteen administrators formed the executive, the thirty-
two the council ; and all united together with the notables con-
stituted the great council. In this new constitution, as well as
afterwards in the departmental administration, everything wore
the appearance of monarchy and aristocracy, but in fact the
whole rested upon an absolute democracy.

70 FIFTH PSBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

The seat of this overruling democracy was in the sectional
assemblies^ where every question was decided much more by
numbers than intelligence ; for these sections in their primary
assemblies not only chose those who were to elect the deputies
to the national assembly^ but they also passed sovereign decrees.
The example of Paris was universally imitated, and the basis of
administration was as little fixed and soUd in all the depart-
ments, [districts and cities, as it was in the capital ; though the
constitution was in the latter at least monarchical, there was no
uniformity in its elements and members. For these reasons it
was from the very first seen to be untenable. The terms and
form of this new constitution constituted the sole subject of
deliberation in the national assembly from the 14th of July. It
was led astray by Montesquieu's writings and the ideas of the
firiends of Washington and Franklin, who had North America
always in their eye, in the same manner as the orators of the
national convention, and especially St. Just, were misled by
Rousseau. Lafayette, Larochefoucault-Liancourt, Montmo-
rency, and a great number of the noblest and best men of France,
irresistibly hurried on their colleagues, whose minds were easily
excited and full of inspiration for freedom, to the adoption of
unpractical though in themselves praiseworthy views, or to what
Napoleon called ideology. The men who, in July and August,
were desirous of laying deep and strong the foundations office-
dom and equality in the constitutional monarchy of their native
land, by the greatest sacrifices of private advantages which were
ever made by any assembly, by means of three decrees efiTeo-
tually destroyed all that they wished to maintain, without know-
ing or suspecting the result ; and afterwards they shrunk back
with horror firom the consequences of their own conduct. All
the high nobility and persons of distinction who gave the tone
to society in 1789 (with the exception of Lafayette) have, as
enthusiasts usually do, who are the mere creatures of fashion
both in literature and life, not only cursed their own blindness,
but shown their hatred to, and as opportunities served, perse-
cuted, every appearance of civil fireedom or religious enlighten-
ment in our own days.

The first of these three well-meant but highly injurious reso-
lutions related to the celebrated demand, which had been often
made since the 11th of July, to prefix an abstract declaration of
the rights of man to the new constitution, without paying any

$ IlO FBANOB TILL JULY 1790. 71

atention whatever to the existing social condition of Europe.
The second decree was the renunciation of all the rights^ privi*
leges and immunities of ancient times, which the assembly passed
into a law, without having, first, maturely weighed the conse-
quences of their proceeding, or without having even recollected
that they themselves might from magnanimity alienate their own
properties or privileges, but had no right to compel others to
exercise such magnanimity. The third precipitate and injurious
determination of these honourable visionaries affected the catho*
lie religion. Instead of fixed definite limits, beyond which the
discipline of ecclesiastical communities should not extend, and
leaving the whole internal regulations of the church to its own
members, they proceeded to interfere with the internal discipline
of the church, and by this step destroyed on the one hand the
religious character of the masses, which is almost wholly de-
pendent on rites and ceremonies, whilst on the other they roused
a spirit of fanaticism.

Even Mirabeau was opposed to the declaration of the rights
of man, although he was not at that time paid by the court to
endeavour, by means of secret cabals, again to overturn what he,
as chief organ of the enemies of the court, had been the means
of building up. The precipitate renunciation of all the privi-
leges and immunities enjoyed by certain classes was bitterly re-
pented of by most of the deputies, no later than three days after
it had passed. It was in fact the result of a long night-sitting
held between the 4th and 5th, after the assembly had resolved
in the morning on the declaration of the rights of man. It was
all in vain that Mirabeau, during the mommg sitting, had di-
rected the' bitter sting of his irony against the proposals of his
theoretic friends ; they even rejected the counsel of the pious
Gregoire, who on almost all occasions was prone to yield to the
most Utopian dreams "**. The assembly was mainly led to the
adoption of the resolution abolishing all seigneurial rights and
political immunities by the accounts which were constantly ar-
riving from various quarters of the kingdom, of the devastations
which were practised^— tiie burnings, pillage, and destruction of

• Gr^ire observed with great tmth : " On vous propose (to the yonng vi-
comte Montmorency) de mettre h la tSte de votre constitotion ane declaration
des droits ; nn pareil oavrage est digne de voas ; mats il seroit imparfait, si
cette d^laration n'^toit pas aossi celle des devoirs ; les droits et les devoirs
Bont corr^atifs."

72 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

the castles of the nobility and great landed proprietors. It was
proposed to anticipate the wishes of the people by a self-sacri-
ficing ordinance, and thus to put an end to the rustic war. A
motion to this effect was no sooner made in the assembly on the
evening of the 4th, than a universal enthusiasm pervaded its mem*
bers, and spread like the contagion of a violent fever *. One
wished to outdo the other ; laymen and clergy emulated each other
in their promptitude to offer all the privileges which they had hi-
therto enjoyed as sacrifices upon the altar of their country. The
offers of the evening were afterwards embodied in formal resolu-
tions, and reduced into the form of seventeen articles, which
were then made public in all the churches of the kingdom. The
changes effected by these resolutions of the night between the 4th
and 5th have with great justice been designated as the fourth act
of the revolution, which suddenly broke out in 1789. The first
was on the 5th of May, when the third estate summoned the
members of the other two to appear in their chamber ; the second
was the act of holding the assembly on the 20th in the tennis-
court, in contempt of the royal authority ; the third, the storm-
ing of the Bastille on the 14th, and the institution of the national
guard, together with the municipality of Paris. The resolutions
of the 4th and 5th having been drawn up with too great pre-
cipitancy, and their authors neither having thought of the man-
ner in which they were to be carried out, nor of the advantages
to be reaped from them, were afterwards involved in great diffi-
culties, when it appeared that the only benefits which were
likely to accrue fell to the lot of persons for whom they had not
been intended f- On the 10th the ecclesiastical tithes were abo-
lished, without any compensation or any new provision for the
clergy, but it very soon appeared how precipitate all these

* On this as on similar occasions Lafayette and Montmorency led the way,
and were followed by Noailles (cadet), the two Lameths, D'Aiguillon, La-
rochefoncauIt-Liancourt, and Victor Broglio. The rest were carried away by
the impetuosity of their leaders.

t All rights of personal vassalage were surrendered, and the nobles agreed
to receive compensation for ail dues and services paid to the feudal superiors,
as well as to the abolition of their local courts and jurisdiction. The rights of
the chase were relinquished, and the exclusive privilege of warrens and dove-
cots ; consent was given to a composition for tithes and equality of taxation.
All citizens were to be eligible to all military and civil offices ; the purchase of
public situations was abolished, and a total abolition was decreed of all the pri-
vileges and immunities, whether possessed by cities, provinces, corporations,
guilds or individuals. And finally, all pensions granted merely from favour
were to be withdrawn.

§ II.] FBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 73

measures had been. Every one, however, who considers the
direction which the public mind in Europe, and especially in
France, appears to take in the middle of the nineteenth century,
will see that nothing but the senseless precipitancy of the 4th of
August, and the shameful and inhuman murders and robberies
of the times of terror, have rendered the restoration of all the
mischieft of the eighteenth century impossible, which otherwise
would certainly have taken place, or would still be effected. In
the same manner as the furniture and taste of the times of Louis
XIV. and Louis XV. are now everywhere to be seen, monks and
petty tribunals would have been or would be everywhere re-
stored, such as they are at this moment to be met with in seve-
ral parts of Germany and in Switzerland. It was however im-
possible at that time to foresee the change which has taken
place in the prevailing customs, and the renunciation of every
form of freedom of thought, and therefore even Sieyes offered a
strenuous opposition to the abolition of tithes, and proved that
this step would only be advantageous to persons of property 'i'.
The most violent debates afterwards arose on single points,
during which Necker, and the ministry which he had chosen,
used every possible means, but in vain, to prevent a complete
remodeling of the whole Ufe and usages of the French. It was
clearly seen that the national assembly was beginning to split
into two great parties, one of which was completely revolution-
ary in its views, and the other favourable to a constitutional
monarchy. Among the adherents and most distinguished men
of the former, we may mention the names of Mirabeau, Chape-
lier, Bamave, Silleiy, Latouche, Menou, the two Lameths, and
the deputies from Brittany. The heads of the constitutional
party were Necker, Mounier, Lally de ToUendal, Clermont Ton-
n^re, Virieu and others.

The confusion in Paris was still greater than that in Versailles,
for every class and every portion of the citizens laid claim to
some share of the sovereignty of the people. The soldiers of
the French guards formed a deliberative body in the Oratoire,
the journeymen tailors iu the Colonnade, the wig-makers in the

* Sieyes and others proved, that instead of making a present of the tithes
to the landed jiroprietors, they should devise means of helping the state with-
out robbing the clergy. The ecclesiastical tithes amounted to 80—90 millions
of livres per annum, and therefore to a capital of about 2,000,000,000 ; and if
therefore Uie landed proprietors had been required to pay off this capital in ten
yean, the state would have obtained 200,000,000 yearly.

74 FIFTH PBBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. I.

Champs Elys^es^ 4000 servants in the Louvre^ and 13^000 shoe-
makers on the Place Louis Quinze. The most dreadful of all
those assemblies however were the district meetings^ in which
the rudest and most violent artisans governed by the fist. Every
district appointed a permanent committee, a committee for po-
lice, another for military affiurs, a third for questions of civil
administration, and finally a committee of subsistence. Each
committee had its own president, vice-president and secretary ;
whilst every district laid claim to legislative, and every committee
to executive power. The districts presently fell into vehement
disputes among themselves, and with the common-council of the
city^ whose members they were disposed to regard as their ser-
vants. The most active persons in these committees were, gene-
rally speaking, advocates without practice, ruined notaries and
attorneys ; these men pronounced judgments, and caused their
fellow-citizens to be arrested and thrown into prison. On the
orders of one of these district presidents men and women were
often dragged out of their beds, and led through the whole city
on foot between soldiers with fixed bayonets, and placed before
a commissioner of poUoe ; and young ladies of respectable fami-
lies were carried away from their own doors and locked up in
company with the most degraded of their sex. The national
assembly therefore became anxious in August quickly to com-
plete their draft of the principles of the new constitution^ in order
to put an end to anarchy by a new organization.

Whilst the king still continued to hesitate, whether by his con-
firmation he would give the validity of law to the resolutions of
the national assembly, founded on the deliberations of the 4th and
10th of August, Mounier, in the name of the committee on the
constitution, brought the six fundamental articles of the new con-
stitution before the assembly on the 28th. Noailles and Lameth
however maintained, that before these fundamental articles, which
were completely monarchical in their spirit, should be received,
it must first be determined whether the legislative body should
continue to hold permanent sittings, or should be called together
firom time to time ; whether it should consist of two or only of
one chamber; and whether the king's assent should be in all
cases absolutely necessary to give their resolutions the force of
law; or finally, whether the king's refusal should only be tem-
porarily obstructed. It was no sooner resolved that the legisla-
tive body should consist of one chamber only; that its sittings

§ II.] VBANCB TILL JULY 17^- 7$

should be permanent, its members elected every two years, and
receive allowances for their expenses; that the army should
not be subject to the king alone, but take an oath to be faithful
to the king, the nation and the law ; than Mounier, Lally-Tol-
lendal and other hberal but monarchical members, began to see
the impossibility of founding any permanent constitutional mo-
narchy on such a basis, and left the assembly at the end of the
year 1789. The debate respecting the prerogative of the crown
was the most vehement, and the advocates of an absolute, or as
they expressed it, a suspensive veto on the part of the king, were
zealous and enei^tic on behalf of their respective opinions.

Mounier, LaUy-Tollendal and other liberal deputies began to
tremble, because Mirabeau and his revolutionary adherents ap-
peared to them too powerful ; and Mirabeau himself, on the other
hand, was anxious lest his adherents might go Airther than he
thought advisable. In the discussion on the absolute or sus-
pensive veto he took the side of the royal party, although his
conduct on that occasion exposed him to the suspicion of the
mob, and he was pointed at as a candidate for the lamp-post.
In May of the following year he succeeded in inducing the
assembly to agree that the king should have the right of declaring
war and concluding peace, and went in consequence for several
days in continual danger of his life. He contributed also to the
success of the motion by which it was conceded that the king's
veto should hold good for the space of two sessions (four years) ;
but a means was devised either to compel him to confirm the
resolutions of the national assembly, passed from the 4th of
August till the 15th of September, or to make such confirma-
tion unnecessary; It was maintained that the articles of the
constitution stood in no need of confirmation from the king, but
only required publication in his name ; whereas it was difierent
with laws. The other points were communicated to the public
with the king's consent, but he was unwilling to proclaim the
speculative doctrines concerning the rights of man, and the
national assembly therefore caused the articles touching these
fimcied primitive rights to be published on the l8t of October.

Necker had already lost all his influence, for Marat by his
journal, and Danton by his voice of thunder, had succeeded in
terrifying all those who were not filled with the enthusiasm of
the moment, and the court stood openly in such a hostile rela-
tion to the national assembly, that it was no longer possible to

76 FIFTH PERIOD.— -FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

place any confidence in the king's promises. The mistrust of
the courts the idea of the possibility of subduing the prevailing
disorders by military force, and the imprudence of the queen,
who neither would nor could conceal her dislike to the estates,
her detestation of liberalism and the liberals, or her contempt
for the duke of Orleans, who had at least adherents, if not, pro-
perly speaking, a party ; — all these things were hailed with satis-
faction and magnified by those whose hopes lay in promoting
every species of disorder, and longed to profit by public con-
fusion. Such were the men whose voices ruled in the districts
and even in the corporation of Paris. They wished to bring the
king and the national assembly to Paris, where both would be
in some measure their prisoners ; and in order to obtain their
desire, they made a masterly use of an occurrence in Versailles,
which was in itself unimportant.

Two circumstances were turned to account, in order to sug-
gest to the minds of the Parisians, or rather those classes who
gave the tone in the sectional meetings, the idea of compelling the
king to come to Paris. The first was the prevailing want and
dearth of provisions, which however, with most authors who
have written on this point, we do not venture to ascribe to any
artificial or malicious means ; and the second was the appear-
ance of the Flanders regiment in Versailles. A report was assi-
duously spread among the lowest class of the people, that the
presence of the king in Paris would be the means of relieving
the dearth ; and by the queen's imprudence, the incidents con-
nected with the arrival of the Flanders regiment enabled Mira-
beau and his friends to attain their object.

In the commencement of October, the constitutional resolu-
tions of the national assembly already issued were to be changed
into formal laws, and published with the sanction of the king;
Louis however continued to hesitate, particularly with regard
to the nineteen preliminary articles ; and a report was spread,
not wholly without foundation, that the queen and her advisers
were plotting a counter-revolution, and would not shrink from
a civil war. The queen, who was not guided by political con-
siderations, but by personal and female passions, cannot be re-
proached for entertaining such views, because she and her hus-
band were daily abused by the populace, in consequence of
which the troops on duty at the palace and the national guard
of Versailles, which guarded the chambers, were excessively

§ II.] FBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 77

hanused. Ck>unt d^Estaing^ well-known as an admiral in the
North American war^ was at the head of this national guard : he
wrote a long letter to the queen respecting the folly of the
cabals which the marquis Bouill^, the baron de Breteuil, and
the Spanish ambassador in her name^ were carrying on with or
without the knowledge of the king, entreated her to desist, and
solicited an audience. This letter may be seen in the ^ M^moires'
of the marquis de Ferrieres ; it would appear, however, that the
queen at the solicited audience had been successful in changing
the views of this constitutional count, for he was the very man
who contributed to persuade the civil authorities of Versailles to
allow some battalions of the regiment of Flanders to be ordered
to Versailles, in order to lighten the severity of the duty, — a step
moreover which the national assembly did not disapprove. The
soldiers were to take the duty outside the palace in common or
alternately with the national guard of Versailles, whilst the noble
guard performed the duty in the interior.

The court at that time was kept in a state of alarm by persons
who formed a species of satellites to a small number of deputies
who ruled the national assembly. These deputies were in the
habit of collecting around the president's chair, and were called
the Tatar camp. All the most violent measures which were pro-
posed were concocted by this band, and they gave the tone to
the clamours of the mob. It was natural for the officers of the
Flanders regiment to sympathize with the queen, on account of
the treatment to which she was exposed, and to express their
dissatisfaction with the rudeness and insults which were heaped
upon the daughter of a very ancient imperial house. These
officers, according to custom, were invited to a banquet by the
garde du corps, and the queen not only rejoiced in their mo-
narchical enthusiasm, but was imprudent enough to give public
expression to her feelings. The banquet was suffered to assume
an official character, and was held in the opera room of the
palace, which had not been used on any festive occasion since
the visit of the emperor Joseph II. to the French court. During
the banquet the king also appeared, accompanied by the queen
and the dauphin, at first above in the royal box, but afterwards
below, where the officers dined. The queen and her ladies have
been accused of the imprudence of distributing white &vours on
this occasion, but the fact is not clearly established. Unfortu-
nately, D^Estaing, in consenting to the call of the Flanders regi-

78 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVUION. [CH. I.

ment to Versailles, had only consulted his staff, and not the
national guard itself, and the citizens therefore became loud in
their complaints, as well as the corporation of Paris. The pre-
tence alleged by the latter for interfering in the affair was, that
the numerical strength of the battalions had been intentionally
increased. It had also been discovered that many constitutional
royalists, and among the number even Malouet, had advised the
king to remove the meetings of the national assembly to Tours,
and to go thither himself. The banquet therefore was regarded
and proclaimed by the populace as a conspiracy of the court
against the nation.

On any other occasion it would have excited no surprise^
that officers and soldiers at a banquet at which the royal wines
were not spared should have been guilty of many follies, and
have expressed in exa^erated terms their attachment to the
queen ; but on this it became, and was made, a grave matter of
accusation both against themselves and the court. In their
loyal enthusiasm and intoxication they used the most violent
gesticulations, drank deep to the health of the king and queen,
and were clamorous in the expression of their feelings, whilst
they never thought of the nation. They sang the famous mo-
narchical song, " Oh I Richard, oh I mon roi, Purdven faban-
danney" which afterwards became the watchword of the royalists,
when the Marseillaise was adopted as the gathering of the re-
publicans. This act of imprudence on ^ the part of the court
was very welcome to the enemies of the queen, to Mirabeau
and the duke of Orleans; and Oorsas, one of the most violent
and able among the legion of newspaper writers'*', published an

* In order to show what means were employed for working upon the people,
how these means were employed, and how unexampled the participation of
the people was in the events and news of the day, we shall here refer to
some of the most distinguished of the journals, without laying claim to a com-
plete list, or even alluding to those which were called Journals of the revolu-
tion. The first journal of this kind was undertaken by Mirabean, in connexion
with some friends. This waa first called ' Etats G^n^raox,' next, ' Lettrea du
Comte de Mirabeau a ses Commettans,' and then, 'Courrier de Provence,'
which ceased in June 1790. Hie ' Mercure de France,' by Mallet du Pan, and
the ' Journal de Paris,' by Garat, made the fortunes of their editors, but were
unimportant for the revolution. The 'Gazette de France' and the 'Journal
General de France' do not belong to this class, but the following are particu-
larly worthy of notice : — the ' Assemblee Nationale,' by Haudey de Sanche-
freuil ; the ' Point du Jour' of the notorious Bertrand Bar^ de Vieuzac, who
was at that time a moderate royalist, became a girondist, and afterwards in the
reign of terror a companion of Robespierre and the Anacreon of the guillotine.
Regnaod de 8t. Jean d*Angdly wrote the ' Journal de Versaillea' till November

§ II.] PBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 79

article on the subject in the ^ Courrier de Versailleg/ which set
all Paris in commotion. He described the banquet as orgies^
and so drew up his report, which was afterwards read to the
public in the Palais Royal, that he led the people to believe that
a conspiracy was formed in Versailles against the constitution.
The French guards had already entertained the idea of marching
to Versailles and entering upon their former duties, which in-
duced Lafayette to write a letter to Versailles on the 17th of
September, full of anxiety on the subject. This feeling now
sprung up in their minds with double force. As early as the drd
of October, the day-labourers, fish- women, and canaUle of the
Paris suburbs were anxious to go in procession to Versailles, and
on the 5tb it was no longer possible to prevent them firom car-
rying their design into execution. It is so certain that all the

1789- In addition to these, three or four other newspapers bore the title of
' Assemble Nationale/ and found readers. The ' Patriote Fran^ais/ by Bria-
sot ; 'Chronique de Paris/ by Miliin, and afterwards by Noel ; and the 'An-
nates Patriotiques/ which was written by the raving Carra, under Mercier's
name, were violent in their tone; but still more violent was that of the 'Cour*
rier de Versailles,' edited by Gorsas, which was afterwards called ' Courrier de
Paris et des D^partemens.' The royalist journals, even the 'Actes des Apdtres/
produced very little effect; and the 'Journal des D^bats/ 'Logographe' and
' Moniteur * have only become remarkable in our times ; the first for having been
during thirty years the organ of very different governments ; and the last for
having been obliged to receive in its immense sheets all the public documents
which have been published since 1789> and to become the defender of what-
ever party vras able to seize the helm of state. Maret> afterwards due de Bas-
sano, wrote the ' Bulletin/ which contained a literal report of public transac-
tions, and was united with the ' Moniteur,' which from 1789 became at once
the largest and most authentic journal. The ' Logographe,' conducted by the
Lameths, Adrian Duport, and others of that party, was still lar^r than the
' Moniteur,' but it disappeared on the 10th of August, together with the con-
stitution, of which it was the d^ender. All these papers were intended to ^ve
da% reporU ; there were other weekly journals, which were of a reasoning
description. The ' Courrier de Brabant,' by Camille Desmoulins ; the 'Revo-
lutions de Paris,' which appeared under Prudhomme's name, who from being
a stationer became a bookseller, was first edited by a person called Toumon,
and afterwards gained great importance in the hands of a fanatical jacobin of
the name of Loostalot. Cerutti, Rabant de St. Etienne, made the country peo*
pie alive to the cause of the revolution by means of the ' Feuille Villageoise/
The chief supports of the democracy however were Fr^ron by his 'Orateur du
Peuple/ and Marat with his ' Amidu Peuple,' whose influence and effect were
quite unexampled. On the other hand, the 'Ami de la Constitution' and
' L'Ami des Patriotes^' whose tone was moderate, produced but small effects.
There were papers called flying sheets, among which ' Le Chant du Coq,' by
Esmenard, was published every second day and printed like a placard, and
afterwards distributed by the bill-stickers under the name of 'Babillard/
Among these flying sheets, the ' Argus ' was famous for having destroyed the
popularity of Brissot in 1793 ; and its editor, Feydel, said of the ' Observa-
teur,' that it was intended for the water-carriers, and in fact it exercised ao
immense inflaence over the preliimru.

80 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

dreadful scenes in Versailles were previously prepared^ that even
the national assembly afterwards commissioned the criminal tri-
bunal {Chdtelei) to investigate the afiair. The investigation was
commenced in the year 1790, but the storm of the revolution
scattered the tribunal and put an end to the inquiiy, and the
three volumes of minutes which are now printed throw but little
light on the subject ; certain it is however that Mirabeau was ac-
tively concerned^ and that the duke of Orleans supplied money.

The masses of the Parisian populace no doubt believed that
the king's presence in the city would tend to a better supply of
provisions and an abatement of the dearth^ and therefore resolved
upon a procession to Versailles ; Lafayette and Bailly, on the
contrary^ used their utmost exertions, at the peril of their lives^
to stay this absurd and insane movement, and on this occasion
Lafayette experienced a great humiliation. Some daysu pre-
viously, Mirabeau had given proofs of his enmity to Lafayette,
by showing a desire to use the national assembly as an instru-
ment in bringing to light a letter which the general had written
and despatched to Versailles, but Lafayette proved to have
greater weight in the assembly than his opponent. Mirabeau,
on the contrary, had contrived to secure for himself a much
greater influence among the people than Lafayette suspected.
The latter therefore never afterwards ceased his exertions till a
prosecution was commenced against Mirabeau, and the duke of
OrleaQS was sent for a time out of the country.

The men who at that time made it their business to have con-
tinually at their disposal a number of terrific women, clothed in
frightful apparel, and a strong and reckless mob, of dread and
cannibal aspect, called out their motley and fearful army on this
occasion also. As early as eight o'clock on the morning of the
5th, the clamorous multitude thronged around the bakers' shops
in the streets of the city, collected on the Place de Greve, and
threateningly demanded to be led to Versailles. Lafayette used
all his exertions to dissuade them, but in vain ; as the national
guard, and especially the French guards, who formed the kernel
of the new force, were of a different opinion from their general.
He no sooner perceived that the national guards, even without
his permission or presence, would follow the thousands who
were making preparations to march to Versailles, than, in order
to preserve his credit and station, he suffered himself to be per-
suaded by Bailly and the municipal council to issue orders to

§ II*] VBANCB TILL JULY 1790. 81

the national guard to follow the terrific procession to guard
against mischief and to preserve public order. The women and
the mob had already set out; they were very generally intoxi-
cated, and dragged three pieces of artillery in their train; for at
that time the lowest and rudest class of the citizens^ consisting
of carters^ smiths^ carpenters^ braziers^ and butchers^ composed
the artillery of the national guard. Multitudes of the common
citizens had been already armed with pikes ; during the morn-
ing these united with the women in holding the Hotel de Ville
in a state of siege, and now marched out in motley array at four
o'clock with the clamour of voices and discordant music, before
La&yette was able to collect the national guard and commence
his march. Stanislaus Maillard, one of the heroes in the storming
of the Bastille, who, without being brutal, played the brute, was
the chief leader of this procession of bacchantes. He was ac-
companied by a butcher's man and keeper of a wine^shop named
Jouridan, who regarded the title of coupe-tile as an honour, and
with his dreadfid knife ready for execution headed the frantic
throng of intoxicated women who advanced upon Versailles.

This body, consisting of the refuse of Paris, and spreading
terror as it went, reached Versailles about three o'clock, whilst
Lafayette with the national guard did not arrive till late in the
evening. It would have been easy to have checked and hunted
back the savage and partly drunken hordes, for the soldiers on
duly in Versailles were at first drawn up and would have easily
scattered the undisciplined crowd*. The king however, when-
ever any bold measure was thought expedient, always spoke of
the fate of Charles I. of England which impended over him ;
and his attendants and court were only great on questions of
operas, court balls and ceremonies, of cabals, etiquette and dress;
but these clever witlings had never cherished one serious thought,
and still less were they capable of any energetic action. It was
resolved to remove the soldiers at tiie very moment in which
they ought to have been employed, and to bring the gardes du
corps into the inner court of the palace : this resolution was
probably founded on the conviction, that the national guard of

* Ferri^res states,—" La milice de Versailles ^tait en armes devant la
caserae des gardes Fran^aises ; le raiment de Flandres, post^ sur laplace, oc-
cnpait la longueur de la grille royale ; une partie des gardes du corps (in all 320
men) k cheval sOutenait le r^^ment de Flandres ; Tautre partie, placee dans
la premiere cour du cMteau, en d^fendait I'entr^ ; les gardes Suisses ^taient
rang^ en batuUe procbe leurs casernes."

VOL. VI. Q

82 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

Versailles was exasperated against the gardes du corps, and on
the doubt whether the soldiers of the regiment of Flanders sym-
pathized in the feelings of their officers. The mob did not at
first march to the palace^ but to the national assembly, whose
hall was fiUed by this motley crowd at the moment in which
it was resolved that Mounier the president should proceed to
the king and entreat him to agree to an unconditional accept-
ance of the declaration of the rights of man. The women se-
lected twelve of the most decent and respectable of their body to
accompany the president, by their presence and influence to en-
force his demand, and prevail upon the king to accept all the
articles of the constitution as agreed upon by the assembly.
The women moreover added the special demand, that the king
should come to Paris, by which in their opinion the evils and
horrors of the dearth would be done away with, or at least di-
minished.

The twelve representatives just mentioned were so graciously
received by the king, and were so delighted, that they would have
been quite satisfied with a verbal answer to their address, but
the furies by whom they had been commissioned had given ex-
press orders to insist upon a written reply. In consequence of
their neglect of this point, they were threatened with death by
their constituents, obliged to return to the palace, and with the
fear of death before their eyes, to require a written answer, which
the good-natured king then gave them. It was eleven o'clock
at night, when Mounier brought this answer, which had been
given to the women of Paris, before the national assembly, which
had previously adjourned its sittings in consequence of the vio-
lent irruption of the women into its chamber. On Lafayette's
arrival after eleven o'clock, and the restoration of some degree
of order by his means, the chamber was again filled by a mul-
titude of clamorous women, and the streets and squares with a
new mob, which had accompanied Lafayette and the national
guard from Paris. The march of the guards had been in fact
seriously impeded, because many thousands of low and dissolute
persons followed the army whose dangerous views Lafayette took
all possible means to frustrate ; and therefore he managed the
march in such a way as to hem in the vast and disorderly rabble be-
tween the French guards, which formed the van, and die national
guard, which brought up the rear. In addition to these pre-
cautions he ordered a halt on the way at Virofiay^ and caused his

§ II.] FBANOH TILL JULY 1790. 83

army to repeat their oath of fidelity to the nation^ the king and
the law.

La&yette, who waa always unpractical enough to rely on
men't assurance and words, was again deceived on the 6th of
October by the same genuinely practical and politically skilful
men who had previously made a tool of him in Paris. Their ob-
ject was to spread universal terror and alarm^ in order if pos«
aible to force a substitute upon Louis, as had formerly been
done on Henry IL This project however failed, because the
duke of Orleans was no Ouise. On Lafayette's arrival with his
army between eleven and twelve o'clock, he immediately pledged
himself for the safety of the royal family, if the whole superiu-
tendenoe of the means were left to him; and he required a
similar pledge from those by whom he was surrounded: he there-
fore removed all the soldiers and the mounted gardes du corps,
and again placed the French guards on their old posts. The
duty in the interior of the palace still continued as formerly to
be entrusted to the gardes du corps and the hundred Swiss. Soon
after three. o'clock everything had become quiet; and without
entering for a moment into the ridiculous but much-agitated
question, whether Lafayette had gone to repose or not, it is
at least certain that he retired on the separation oi the national
assembly at three o'clock in the morning, who bad 1^ the
chamber as night-quarters to the clamorous throng. All re*
mained quiet till six o'clock in the morning; but about that
hour, the whole mass of the Parisian mob, without any one
seeming to know by whom it waa excited, suddenly began to
move towards the palace, and a crowd of persons who were
either bribed or under the guidance of those who were, found
one of the side^ates unoccupied.

Lafayette was indeed accused by his numerous enemies among
the nobility with having intentionally left the gate unguarded,
but this is without doubt a calumny. It is however by no
means caiain whether it was to be attributed to mere inatten-
tion or treachery, that the populace found access by the gate
into the inner court of the palace ; and it is further certain, that,
no long time after, some of the national guards fired upon the
gardes du corps in the inner court of the palace. Many of
the latter were murdered in the palace, others upon the stairs
and at the doors of the royal apartments, and one of them (Mio-
mandre), when severely wounded, continued to make a deadly re^

g2

84 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST BIV18I0N. [CH. I.

sistance to the mob at the door of the queen's bedchamber^ in
order that her majesty might gain time to save herself by flight*
Lafayette rescued about thirty of the guard by the bayonets of
his grenadiers^ whilst the dreadful Jourdan^ the terror of all^ cut
off the heads of three of them Mdth his huge knife^ which he
continually held up to the public view. During this scene of
fearful commotion and murder in the court of the palace^ several
of the gardes du corps were murdered by the infuriated popu-
lace^ and their heads^ stuck upon pikes^ paraded before the win-
dows of the royal chambers. At length La&yette^ full of rage
and shame at having been deceived^ succeeded in rallying the
national guards^ and hastened to the relief. The king however
still remained the prisoner of the people^ who threatened to take
vengeance^ and Lafayette was compelled to consent to the queen's
appearance upon the balcony : the king also afterwards pre-
sented himself^ and expressed his willingness to comply with the
demands of the people and to accompany them to Paris. This
was an unhappy day for the constitutional monarchy^ and the
glory of its foimder, the noble and magnanimous Lafayette. The
course of events will furnish too many proofs of this fact, from
which it will be seen that Lafayette was obliged, against his
will, to promote the objects of the duke of Orleans, count de
Mirabeau and their bandits ; although at a later period he was
able to bid defiance to both, and caused a judicial prosecution to
be commenced against them.

He himself recommended the king to give a public proof of
his efieminate despondency. The king Ustened to the impor-
tunate clamours of the multitude, because Lafayette assured him
that the only means of setting some bounds to the public dis*
order was to yield to the importunities of the people, and take
up his residence in the capital. When Lafayette gave him this
counsel, the king was necessarily obliged to promise that he would
proceed to Paris on that very day, if the queen and his family
were allowed to accompany him. This promise was followed
by the ignominious scene, in which the king, Lafayette, and the
grenadiers of the national guards, that is, the French guards,
assembled on the balcony, and condescended to beg the mob in
front of the palace to pardon the gardes du corps who had ven-
tured their lives for the king. On the 6th, the sitting of the
national assembly appointed (or nine o'clock was not opened till
eleven, and Mounier, the president, was unable to prevail on the

§ II.] FRANCE TILL JULY 1790. 85

assembly to proceed to the Apollo saloon in the palace^ because
his wishes were obstructed by Mirabeau. A deputation, con-
sisting of only six and thirty members^ was sent to the king. A
resolution was afterwards communicated to the king, in which the
national assembly declared^ that the body was inseparable from
his majesty ; to which he replied, that he was about to proceed
with the queen and his children to Paris, and would therefore
give the necessary orders to enable the assembly to continue
their labours.

About one o'clock this shameful procession commenced, which
degraded the king and the national assembly, incensed and dis-
honoured Lafayette, and transformed the national guard of the
most refined and polished capital in Europe into the military
accompaniment of cannibals and vagabonds. The procession
was opened by a division, among whom were two pikemen car-
rying aloft the heads of two murdered gardes du corps, and then
from forty to fifty disarmed soldiers of the same body surrounded
by people armed with pikes and swords ; and these were fol-
lowed by two wounded soldiers with torn clothes, dragged on by
two men in national uniform with drawn swords ; nor was the
dreadfiil MaUlard wanting.

The number of persons who surrounded the royal carriage
has been variously computed at 20,000, 30,000 and 40,000; a
deputation of the national assembly, consisting of 100 members,
accompanied the king, who might be regarded as in some mea-
sure the prisoner of the Parisians. This disgraceftil procession
proceeded at a very slow pace and did not reach the Hotel de
Yille till six o'clock, where no measures had been taken for the
suitable reception of the royal family, and they were not able to
find a moment of quiet repose aft;er two days and a night of the
most harassing alarm, till they arrived at the Tuileries at nine
o'clock in the evening. On the 19th of October the national
assembly also came to Paris, where its members held their sit-
tings, first in the palace of the archbishop and next in the riding-
school, which stood on the site now occupied by the Rue Rivoli.
They were at first desirous of depriving the sections of Paris
and the corporation of the unconditional dominion which they
had hitherto exercised, and on the 21st proclaimed martial law
which enabled the constitutional authorities, with the aid of the
well-disposed citizens, to repel force by force, and to set some
bounds to the ochlocratic mischiefs which were daily perpetrated.

86 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH« I.

A judicial inquiry Mras also instituted with a view to discover the
secret instigators of the scenes of the 5th and 6th of October^
to whom Mirabeau indisputably belonged^ and by threats La-
fayette compelled the duke of Orleans himself to withdraw for a
time to London.

Immediately after the removal of the national assembly to
Paris there commenced those conspiracies entered into by the
courtiers^ princes, queen and king, led astray by his ministers, to
whom Necker no longer belonged, with all the friends of the
ancient rigime and with foreign princes, and at the same time
the institution of an anarchical government in the hands of the
people. The jacobin club soon assumed the rank of an inde-
pendent authority $ the national assembly, the clubs and the
municipal councils of the various communities appointed- com-
mittees, who employed emissaries and spies, and broke open
letters in order to discover the secrets of suspected parties and
afterwards expose them to the merciless persecutions of a tumul-
tuary police, which was presentiy oi^anized by the popular will
throughout the whole kingdom. The higher classes were every'-
where alarmed at the progress of anarchy ; and the people, that
is, the lowest classes, practised what in America has since been
called lynch law ; they took the whole administration of justice
into their own hands, and became at once judges and executioners.
The same savage masses, under the name of the sovereign people,
soon made their power felt in the district assemblies, and gave
a tone to the deliberations of the jacobin club and the national
assembly by loud manifestations of applause or disapprobation.
Robespierre gained his first importance through the favour of
these coarse and vulgar crowds, whose movements were regu-
lated by Marat and Fn^ron ; he understood how to flatter their
passions and to accommodate his broad and forcible eloquence
to their modes of thinking. Robespierre took the field as an
antagonist of Mirabeau, whose ambitious and covetous specula*
tions also found an opponent in Lanjuinais, but the latter em-
ployed only the weapons of the stoic republicanism of an ancient
Roman I On the 6 th of November the Breton club of Poissy
was transformed into the jacobin club of Paris, under which
name it soon received an immense extension of numbers and in*
fluence, because every one who wished to attain any prominence
in the political world was obliged to become a member. The
leading men in the club consisted of those members who gave

§ II.] FBANCB TILIi JULY 1790. 87

the tone in the national assembly^ and who^ carried away by their
viaionaiy notions and speculative philosophy> began to dream of
a pure republicanism. Among these we may especially record
Uie names of Potion de Ville-neuve^ afterwards elected mayor of
Paris instead of Bailly, Chapelier^ Buzot, Qr^ire and Thuriot^
all men of good education and enlightened minds, who by no
means destined the new dub for the purposes to which it was
afterwards applied.

Buzot, who at a later period brought the Marseillese to Paris^
and without his knowledge or will became a participator in all
Danton's crimes, exhibits himself in his ' Memoires' as a disciple
of Rousseau and a man of great talents and strict morals. He
displayed his zeal against all the knaves of those times who
preyed upon the public credulity, and especially against the
duke of Orleans and those unprincipled profligates who used
him as their tool ; he honestly admits however that he and his
friends had already laid the foundations of the republic in Ver-
sailles, and from the commencement of 1790 had carried on an
incessant war with the court*. It may now be seen from the
pension-list and from the publication of what was called the
^ Bed Bookt,' what a miserable character Mirabeau played in
1789, and indeed till his death, if any stress be laid upon prin«
ciples of morality or feelings of honour; we do not therefore
deem it worth our trouble to follow him in his course till April
1791> in which he died, or to detail the various scenes of his
activity, one while as a demagogue and at another as the mere
mercenary of the court. Lafayette and his friends were at first
united with the men whose names we have recorded as members
of the jacobin club ; but when the club became numerous, its
deliberations stormy, and the language of its members vehe-

* In hiB ' M4moin8,' p. 165^ Bazot says of himself and his friends the
girondists, " Tls cre^rent ce club Breton k Versailles oii se pr^par^rent et la
r^olation et les coarages qui devoient la fortifier et la soutenir au milieu des
plus pressans dangers.'' In the same place he boasts, that they were the per-
sons " qui form^rent cette soci^t^ ^tablie anx jacobins, pour lutter contre la
cour et ses nombreux partisans, son or et ses menaces."

f The contents of this ' Red Book/ whose publication Necker did every-
thing in his power to prevent, were partially known before, under the title,
' Le Ldvre Rouge, ou Liste des Pensions Secretes sur le Tr^sor Public, premiere
classe, premiere livraison, de rrmprimerie Royale/ 1790. p. 25. "Mirabeau
(oomte de), Utt^teur, 200,000 livres. En 1776, 5000 livres pour avoir venda
le MS. d'un ouvrage de sa composition intitule, Dea Lettres de Cachet, et en
1789, 195,000 livres sur sa parole d'honneur de faire avorter les projets de
raasembl^ naidonale."

88 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

ment^ the more refined and elevated friends of freedom formed
another society called the club of 1789, This constitutional
society first opened its meetings in May 1790^ and from the
very commencement vras vehemently assaSed by the two repub-
lican societies^ which held their meeting in the jacobin, and
firanciscan convents, and did not attain any great force till July
1791, when many members forsook the jacobins after the king's
flight; its glory however was of very short duration and imme-
diately afterwards disappeared.

Robespierre at this time still continued to be reserved and
cunning; and the chief organ of the jacobins of the most vehe-
ment class were Marat, the author of the infuriate ^ Ami du
Peuple/ and Freron, the editor of the ^ Orateur du Peuple/
whilst Camille Desmoulins deUvered his orations to the popu-
lace at the Palais Royal, quite in the strain of the subsequent
reign of terror. The party distinguished for its especial violence
was however obUged at that time to unite in a particular society,
because the milder girondists for a long time held the sway
among the jacobins by their talents and eloquence. Danton,
Camille Desmoulins and those like-minded, who saw that no
new social institutions could possibly be introduced without the
forcible extinction of the old and without scenes of strife and
blood, held meetings and formed a society at the convent of the
franciscans, the constitution of which was such, that every
member of the franciscans must be a member of the jacobins, but
not vice versd. In subsequent times the name of the Cordeliers
was descriptive of the most dreadful, unsparing and wicked
among the republicans, who honoured Danton as their patri-
arch. Potion, Buzot and Robespierre had already attained a
powerful influence in the jacobin club, whilst Gr^goire, Lanjui-
nais and other very good and honest men sympathized with
their violent tone, because they were afraid, and on good
grounds, that the government of France would pass from the
chambers of the courtiers to the saloons of the bankers and
liberal nobility, by which little indeed would have been gained,
as the experience of our own times abundantly proves. When
we have read and reflected on what Necker himself, and espe-
cially his daughter, madame de Stael, have informed us con-
cerning the subjects of complaint dwelt on by the Mouniers,
Lally-Tollendal, the Malouets and Clermont Tonnere, we can
readily understand why Lanjuinais, Gr^ire, madame Roland

§ II.] FRANCB TILL JULY 1790. 89

and others prefened the jacobins to these distinguished persons,
who were called FeuiUaniSy after the name of the monks in
whose convent they assembled.

On the 4th of August the feudal nobility of the middle ages
was smitten at its root, on the 6th of October the monarchy of
the seventeenth and eighteenth century was robbed of its daz-
zling splendour, and on the 2nd of November fell the glory of
the hierarchy, from which Dante had been formerly accustomed
to deduce the seven deadly sins of the middle ages^. On the
2nd of November the national assembly passed into a law a pro-
position which Talleyrand Perigord had already laid before them
in the preceding August. By this law the whole estates of the
church were at once declared to be the property of the nation ;
but an express condition was added, that the state should make
a suitable provision for the clergy, for the support of the church
and the wants of the poor, and that a share in the administra-
tion should be given to the local authorities. This measure, as
well as those afterwards adopted respecting the great landowners
and the sale of the divided estates, enabled thousands who had
been previously only labourers or farmers to become possessors
and owners. Such a change could indeed only be effected by a
complete reversal for several years of the usual order of things^
as it exists in every civilized state. From this time forward the
rude, servile, oppressed, suffering majority of the people, who
had been obliged to submit to the law of the minority, now in
their turn oppressed, persecuted and harassed the minority by
their description of justice. This popular justice was indeed, as
that of the rich had formerly been, really injustice, and it was
enforced with more brutal and cruel violence ; but the nature, re-
lation and order of things were again speedily restored.

* Dante represents the church in purgatory under the figure of a carriage^
tile emperors under that of an eagle, and feudal tenure as the feathers of the
eagle. After having said that Mahomet had overrun and destroyed a great
part of the ancient Christian church, he says : —

" Quel che rimase, come di gramigna
Vivace terra, della piuma offerta
Forse con intenzidn casta e benigna
Si ricoperse e funne ricoperte
£ r una e 1' altra ruota e '1 temo intanto
Che pill tiene un sospir la bocca aperta
Trasformato cosi '1 edificio santo
Mise fuor testo per le parti sue
Tre sovra '1 temo ed una in ciascun canto."

Purg. xxxii. 1. 136, &c.

90 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

The new order of things proved to be wholly incompatible
with the old judicial learning and tribunals; the parliaments
therefore and the inferior courts strove in vain, and protested in
vain against their threatened dissolution* They woe first com-
pelled to declare a vacation from November 1789 till March
l790j during which period justice was administered by proyi-
sional courts {chamires de9 vacances). As early as March the
' new institution began^ which was first fully carried into efiect in
September. France received new judiciid tribunals and a new
and uniform code equally applicable to all places and districts^
and which in quieter times was afterwards improved and per^
fected. It obtained also trial by jury, which in fact is the chief
blessing which the French of our days owe to the revolution.
In March all titles and privileges of honour* descended from
ancient times were abolished, after the various religious orders
had been dissolved, and the equality of all the citizens of the
state established by law. Such a complete change in all social
and political relations, property, names and customs as that which
was resolved on in July 1790, must necessarily have immediately
dissolved all the ordinary bonds of life ; and France in fact ap-
peared as if it were about to become the prey of a number of wild
fanatics and of the rude masses who were their creatures. This
was no doubt the opinion of Burke and thousands of others^
who therefore cried aloud, stormed, and testified their dread and
abhorrence, and the years immediately succeeding appeared to
confirm all their prophesyings. According to appearances they
were right, but appearances are deceitftil, and in truth and deed
they were wrong. This will more fully appear below at the con-
clusion of the constitutional assembly, and firom the summary
review of the advantages for which France is indebted to the
first national assembly.

Among the chief advantages realized to the nation by the new
constitution, we reckon the abolition of the old provincial divi*
sions and the introduction of new districts, by means of which

* The decree touching this point was first passed on the IQth of June, and
is as follows : — " Art. 1. La noblesse h^r^itaire est pour toujours abolie ; en
cons^uence les titres de prince, due, comte, marquis, vicomte, vidame, baron,
chevalier, messire, ^yer, noble et tons autres semblables ne seront pris par
personne, ni donnas k qui que ce soit." This is followed by a prohibition to
use any other than the family name, arms, &c. Then : — " Lies titres de mon-
seigneur et de nosseigneurs ne seront donn^, ni a aucun corps, ni a aucun in-
dividu, ainsi que le titre d'excellence, d'altesse, d'^minence, de grandeur, de
messire/' Sec.

§11.] FBANOB TILL J17LT 1790« 91

all the ancient local governments and peculiaritieB were forgotten
and the different members were united into one great body politic.
The division into departments, districts, cantons and communes,
and the hierarchy of administration founded upon them, has been
in all its essentials still retained, although the theory of the sove-
reignty of the people, especially in their elective capacity, on
which it rested, led to results which proved to be wholly inca-
pable of being reduced to practice, and which furnished the most
reasonable grounds to the governments, which in our days have
restored the monarchy in France, for making such changes and
alterations as were suitable to thdr objects **>. According to the
new oonstitution, even the judges were to be chosen by the
people. By as much too small a qualification was required to
oiable a man to become an elector or a deputy, as the present
one is much too high, at least as regards the electors. The
general confusion, the tumultuous proceedings of the people, the
discomfort of the intermediate period between the abolition of
the old and the introduction of the new, the outcry and satires
of the friends of the old rfgitne and their own mutual crimina-
tions and recriminations, had drawn down upon the members of
the national assembly much serious reproach, and brought then:
decrees into discredit towards the middle of the year 1790 ; the
whole nation appeared to become colder, and it was therefore
resolved to institute a grand national solemnity, in order to re-
awaken the enthusiasm of the people.

* Each department formed a whole in itself, immediately connected with
Paris ; each had an aristocracy in the directory for the usual and general ad-
ministration and in the departmental conncil, consisting of six and thirty
members \ all this however rested upoA democratic elections. In the same
manner as the deparment, each district had also a council of twelve and a
directory of five members, whose resolutions required the visa of the authori**
ties of the department. Each department possessed a civil and criminal court,
and everv canton a Justice of the peace. This was all excellent in theory, but
it provea impossible in practice, in consequence of the number of elections
and officers who were to be chosen 6y thi people fnm imong the peopk. It has
been calculated that the total of all the persons directly chosen in this way
would have amounted to 1,300,000 men.

92 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CU. I.

§111.

FROM THE FESTIVAL OF THE FEDERATION ON THE 14tH OF
JULY 1790 TILL THE OPENING OF THE LEGISLATIVE AS-
SEMBLY IN OCTOBER 1791.

It is impossible not to acknowledge and point out the great
importance of the splendid ceremony exhibited by the French
nation^ her constituent assembly^ the representatives of her
armies and her national guards the king and his family^ under
the name of the festival of federation on the Champ de Mars on
the 14th of July 1790 ; we shall not however venture to describe
the festival itself; Frenchmen alone possess the power of justly
appreciating such an exhibition^ and they alone possess words
and phrases fitted to give a just delineation of the spectacle
without making themselves ridiculous. The immense difference
between French and German views in such things and repre-
sentations, may be seen by referring to Thiers' description of the
scene on the 19th of June in the national assembly of Paris,
which has always appeared to us nothing better than a highly
offensive, absurd and ridiculous comedy, but has been treated by
Thiers in a very different spirit, and was in fact very different in
the eyes of the French and for the interests of the country.
Among the eccentric companions of the Parisian philosophers,
and of the societies and clubs of the clever and visionary friends
of freedom and enlightenment, Cloots, baron Yal de Grace, played
a distinguished part. Cloots was bom in Cleves, and therefore
the French affect to call him a Prussian baron, although he was
really brought up and educated in Paris, and as a rich man
played his part in that capital firom his twelfth year. After his
return from his travels he assumed the name of Anacharsis, be-
cause Barthflemy, who in his work described Greece in glowing
colours, had secured for the name a high degree of public respect ;
he called himself the orator of the human race, distinguished
himself as a defender of atheism and a universal republic, and
an opponent of Christianity and the monarchy. On the 19th of
June Anacharsis Cloots led an embassy, consisting of English,
Italians, Arabians, Chaldeans, Indians, Negroes, &c., into the
hall of the national assembly, and made a magniloquent address
to the president in the name of the human race, of which his
motley embassy were for the most part representatives hired for

$111.] FRANCE TILL OCTOBXB 1791. 93

the occasion ; and in this address he offered the thanks of man-
kind to the French for the example which they had shown, and
their devotion to the cause of human liberty. Menou, the pre-
sident of the assembly, found no small difficulty in giving to his
vulgar figure dignity enough for so great an occasion, and in
finding words and phrases to convey a suitable reply. The fiurce
was accompanied by a general burst of rejoicing, and the ambas-
sadors of the human race were invited to the honours of a sit-
ting. Thiers observes, in a decisive tone, that those only who
were present at the scene (at which he was not present) are able
to form a just estimate of its dignity. Count Schlabemdorf how-
ever, who prevented the revolting disputation which was to have
been held in the Palais Royal between the abb^ Fauchet, as the
defender of Christianity on the one side, and Anacharsis Cloots,
as the advocate of atheism on the other, alleges that the whole
was a miserable farce ; Beaulieu, who was an eye-witness, gives
a similar account of this ridiculous exhibition.

We are however by no means disposed to apply the same lan-
guage to the ceremony of the 14th of July, on the Champ de
Mars, with which we have ventured to characterize the scene of
the 19th of June. This ceremony had undoubtedly an imposing
and magnificent character, as had also many of tiiose splendid
spectacles of the same kind, by means of which Buonaparte
filled the French with enthusiasm, but which, in the eyes of
thinking men, were nothing more than empty and deceitfiil ex-
hibitions. This grand ceremony was su^ested by the federa-
tions between the troops of the line and the national guards,
which were at that time celebrated in the open air in almost every
part of France ; this led to the idea of one grand ceremony of
federation in the neighbourhood of the capital. For this pur-
pose an officer and four soldiers were sent from every regiment
in the army, a deputy from every two hundred of the national
guards, and six deputies firom every canton in the whole king-
dom. These were aU summoned to Paris to unite with the king
and the national assembly, and under the open heavens, on the
Champ de Mars, to take a solemn oath that they would keep
holy the principles of the federation, and be faithfiil to all the
articles of the new constitution, as far as they had then been
made known. The enthusiasm of the newest fashion inspired all
Paris ; the whole population, without distinction of rank or sex,
poured out to the Champ de Mars, in order to assist in making

94 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

preparations, by constructing a vast amphitheatre of earth for
this magnificent assembly of the people. The affidr excited so
great attention in Germany, that Girtanner caused a copper-
plate to be engraved representing thousands of Parisians of all
orders and ranks and in every variety of dress engaged in the
works on the Champ de Mars, and prefixed it to his ^Revolutions-
almanach.'

These thousands of volunteer labourers soon levelled the
ground, in the centre of which was erected a grand national
altar supported by pillars twenty-five feet high. Seats were
erected on the elevated banks at each side, in the middle a throne
for the king, and the national assembly appeared for the first
time before the eyes of hundreds of thousands no longer as a
subordinate body, but as the legislative and ruling power of the
nation. Haces were arranged for 60,000 national guards upon
the steps which led to the elevated sides of the amphitheatre,
where seats were provided for about 160,000 persons, consisting
of ladies, deputies of cantons, &c., and standing room for 100,000
besides. The confederates were drawn up under the flags of the
respective departments, eighty<-three in number. It was an un-
fiivourable prognostication for the fate of religion, and especially
for the religious character of the new age, that Talleyrand P^-
gord, bishop of Autun, appeared as the national priest at the
head of three hundred of the clergy, clothed in white surplices
and adorned with tricoloured scarfs, and celebrated the maas ;
his principles and course of life and action were the same as those
of Mirabeau. It was also an unfavourable omen for the new
political constitution of the kingdom that it rained for nearly the
whole of the day, and that the royal family really considered
themselves as the sacrifice which was to be offered on the high
altar of the nation. The arrangements of the field were »o
planned, that a gallery was erected in firont of the military school,
and in front of the gallery an amphitheatx^, in which the national
assembly and those invited to be present were seated. In the
midst of the gallery, it is true, a throne with a canopy had been
erected upon an elevated position ; but care had been taken that
the president of the assembly should appear as co«ordinate and
not subordinate to the monarch, and his chair was placed to the
right of the throne, but on an equally elevated situation. The
deputies and confederates were the first to take the oath, and then
the king. Those who thought Uke Marmontel and adapted

§ III.] FBANOB TILL OOTOBBB 1791. 95

England as their ideal, wished to insert the word citizen in the
formuk of the oath in a very different sense from that in which
it was used in England, but in most works on the subject we
find no mention of the fact*.

The impression which this grand ceremonial produced in those
times may be best learned from the passage quoted below, se-
lected from Beaulieu, which appears to us the more important as
containing the testimony of an eye-witness, who neither shared
in the intoxication of the times nor was an admirer of the revo-
lution f- By means of this grand ceremony, the French un-
doubtedly received new feelings of enthusiasm, and the rejoicings
in Paris at the fall of tl^e monarchy of Richelieu, Mazarin and
the due d'AiguUlon, and at the regeneration of the national feel-
ing, was loudly proclaimed in all the departments and regiments
of the army, whilst the English and German barons and princes
were filled with horror and alarm at the solemn interment of
their palladium — ^feudal privileges — ^in the Champ de Mars at
Paris.

As to the feudal nobility of Germany, the celebration in Paris
at once served to incorporate their subjects within the limits of
the French territory with the iree citizens of France, and put an
end to the severe oppression which they had long exercised on
their estates, lordships and territories in Alsace and Lorraine ;
the German barons, counts and princes therefore turned to the
emperor, in order to obtain his aid to maintain their ancient pri-
vileges and rights, secured by the faith of treaties, against the
revolutionary encroachments of the national assembly* In order
to quiet and calm the alarm felt by the English aristocracy, as

* It ruDS thu8 : — " I, citizen^ king of the Freiich« swear to employ the
power confided to me, and which is conferred by the constitutional laws of the
state, in order to maintain the constitation as decreed by the national assem*
biy and accepted by me."

+ VoL iii. p. 383 ; — " Le coup d'oeil ^toit en effet magnifique. L'int^rieur
du vaste Champ de Mars ^toit convert d'hommes arm^s, et sur le pourtour on
voyait assise Timmense population de Pftris, grossie par les habitaas des com-
munes voiaines. Sur une eatrade pr^s de I'^coie militaire, on appercevait I'as*
sembMe nationale, et au milieu d'elle le roi, qui paraissait dominer sur ce
grand ensemble. Des arcs de triomphe, des embllmes de toute esp^ce, ana*
loguea k la (^te, en indiquaient Tesprit et le but. Enfin on d^couvrait Tautel de
la patrie, entour^ de flambeaux et de vases antiques, oi\ briilaient des parfums.
L'^v^ue d'Autun c^l^ra la messe sur cct autel, ot A IMl^vation de I'hostie, au
signal donn^ par M. de Lafayette, I'assembi^ natjonale, le roi, les corps arm^^
et mime les assiatans, renouveldreut le serment civiaue, au bruit du canon, qui
aussit6t se fit entendre. La mime c^r^monie se r^petait au mime instant dans
toute la France."

96 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

early as January the ministry had put language into the mouth
of the king, who abhorred all innovation, which clearly referred
to France ; and in May, at a time when Pitt thought it prudent
to be silent and to preserve a strict neutrality, the client of the
aristocracy, whom they had brought into parliament, made inde-
pendent in his means and long pensioned^ broke out into im-
passioned tirades against the revolution. Burke not only raised
the banner of feudalism in parliament, — he not only poured out
the unmeasured bombast of his words of thunder to the great
joy of the squires, but in the same summer he proclaimed a new
species of conservative crusade. In his ^ Reflections on the
French Revolution/ he has the audacity to exhort and entreat
all the European powers to take the field and to sacrifice the
lives of their own people as well as those of the French, for the
restoration of the French absolute monarchy and hierarchy so
oilen denounced by him and his fellow-countrymen, and for the
maintenance of a state which fell to pieces firom its own rotten-
ness and corruption. These violent assaults gave the conduct of
the Parisian demagogues a new and higher political importance
than it had hitherto had ; the democrats of the jacobin club and
in the national assembly became exclusively patriots and their
opponents traitors,- who threatened the downfall of their country
by the aid of foreign princes and the plutocracy, in order to
maintain their places, rank and property. Pitt and his colleagues
availed themselves of the celebrated Burke for the maintenance
of their sinecures and livings, and the privilege of sharing the
lucrative offices of the state among their relations and friends,
and for the promotion of the interests of the plutocracy, who,
clothed in gold brocade, deceived the eyes of the vulgar in the
same manner as the duke of Orleans, and all those whom Buo-
naparte afterwards made princes, democratically employed the
skilful Talleyrand and the dreadful orator Mirabeau and his
Medusa-head. Mirabeau annihilated the credit of the defenders
of the court, whilst Burke destroyed the roots of the apparently
liberal aristocratic opposition, the only one to be feared in En-
gland, by a solemn breach with the leaders of those who were
called whigs. In November, in the midst of peace, Burke
came forward in parliament and poured out all the venom of his
wrath and a whole torrent of denunciations against a friendly
nation, and against the institutions adopted by the nation with
the repeated consent and confirmation of the king. In his cele-

§ in.] FRANCE TILL OCTOBBB 1791. 97

brated speech^ lauded in all the newspapers in Europe^ he
preached fire and sword against those whom he assailed^ and
Fox made an attempt to induce his old and zealous friend to
somewhat greater moderation. This collision led to a touching
scene in the unsentimental parliament of a nation remarkable
for its cool intelligence^— a scene in which Fox played the cha-
racter of David and Burke was his Jonathan. The latter how-
ever publicly and solemnly renounced his former political alli-
ance^ for which reason we shall hereafter return to Burke and his
remarkable publication. Such a service was not allowed to pass
without recompense^ either by the princes of the continent and
their servants, or by Pitt and the tories, but was paid by a liberal
ready-money gratuity.

The opponents of the half-monarchical and half-democratical
new constitution of France were quite as much rejoiced at the
publication of Burke^s high-wrought and calumnious manifesto
as the English plutocrats. They could now show whither the
admiration entertained by the distinguished friends of De Stael
and the worshippers of Montesquieu for everything English
would lead the French ; they were able to turn to so much better
account the miserable and powerless conspiracies of the absolute
princes against the new constitution of France, in order to bring
the king and the nobles into contempt, because the emperor
Leopold was by no means zealous in the cause, nor disposed
actively to interfere on behalf of the German princes whose
rights were invaded. Leopold had succeeded his brother Joseph
in spring, and we shall hereafter see with what Italian subtlety
he assumed the appearance of activity, and entered into consul-
tations with the king of Prussia on the best means of maintain-
ing monarchy, nobility and the priesthood in France. From the
time in which the count d'Artois, then the king's aunts, and
afterwards the most corrupt portion of the nobility took refuge
in Turin, that city became the centre of cabals to which the
king and queen of France and their constitutional ministry were
not strangers. The mad schemes of the Parisian rouSs and Ca-
lonne's intrigues became at length too bad even for the court of
Sardinia, and the count d'Artois and his friend Calonne, who had
previously been sent away without ceremony from Vienna, were
obliged to seek protection from his uncle the elector of Treves,
first in Worms and afterwards in Coblentz.

The secret plots of the emigrants without the kingdom, and

VOL. VI. H

98 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

of the ministry, the court and the friends of the old rigime
within^ furnished abundance of opportunities and pretences to
those who, by a thousand means unattainable in ordinary times,
were able to stir up the unenlightened masses of the people, and
to fill the whole country with terror and alarm. They roused
and satisfied the worst passions of the people, and gratified those
murderous appetites which usually slumber in quiet times, but
when once indulged change men into tigers. The secret cabals
of the priests and nobles were met and counteracted, especially
in the great cities, by the cannibal rage of a people stimulated to
madness by insidious means. Even before the festival of the
federation the most horrible scenes had been enacted in Toulon,
Marseilles, Montauban, Nismes and Bordeaux, and yet the cold,
cunning, selfish and timorous count de Provence (Louis XVIII.)
engaged in a deep and calculating project of recruiting and
bribery in the beginning of the year 1791* The instrument
which he employed was the marquis de Favraa, whom he afler^
wards shamefully denied ; so that on this occasion the men of
the constitution, who were then at the head of affairs, were
generally accused of having allowed the marquis to be hastily
hanged in February in order to suppress inquiry and to satiate
the murderous appetite of the populace.

When in this way all law and justice seemed to disappear, and
the police, which had fallen into the hands of peasants and arti*
sans, merely led to the murder and bondage of the wealthier
classes, the whole property of the state had fallen into dreadful
confusion, and the prosperity of individuals was destroyed, means
were taken to meet these overwhelming pecuniary embarrass*
ments by the issue of assignats. The property of the church
had no sooner been proclaimed to be the property of the state,
on the recommendation of Talleyrand, than a species of notes
was put into circulation which was to be received for a certain
amount on the purchase of the estate specified in the paper
itself; these bonds or assignats however were afterwards changed
into regular paper money, and no longer chargeable upon any
particular estate, but upon the national property in general. By
this means their multiplication was facilitated, but they expe-
rienced the same fate which, sooner or later, is certain to befall
all irredeemable paper money ; they became utterly worthless.
As early as September 1790 Necker quitted the field; Lafayette
and the constitutional club of the Feuillants became the object

§ III.] FRANCE TILL OCTOBER 1791. 99

of the bitterest attacks from the organs of the jacobin club and of
the communes ; Marat, Fr^ron, Camille Desmoulins and Danton
raised the crj of heresy against all the adherents of the new
constitution! and the democracy of the clubs was soon after
regularly organized*

Reception aa a member into the jacobin club of Paris had now
come to be regarded as the only means of advancement, security,
or distinction in the state, and the number of those enrolled
amounted to 1200* The Marseilles branch reached the number
even of 1800 members; and when jacobinism extended, 152
dubs in different places and districts of France were in cor-
respondence with the parent club in Paris. Although the mo-
narchical club of the Feuillants was repeatedly threatened by the
infuriated populace, the majority of the national assembly, and
even the majority of the communes in Paris, continued faithful
to monarchical principles. The best proof of this latter fact is
the re-election of B^y to the office of mayor of the city in
August 1790. The former may be deduced from Necker having
been set at liberty by a decree of the national assembly, after he
had been arrested by the jacobin police in September in Bar-sur-
Aube. At the end of the year 1790, the constitution already
appeared incapable of maintaining its ground, because nothing
but revolutionary measures could be adopted against the threats
of the German princes united with the armed preparations of
the nobles, who at that time were vainly assembling an army on
the frontiers and in the unholy camp of Jales for the protection
of the king, and who filled all the antichambers of the Tuileries.
Nothing now remained but to arm the lower and even the lowest
classes of the people against the upper and middle ones.

After having previously announced a kind of national bank-
ruptcy, by decreeing that the unconsolidated debt should be
paid off in assignats, 50,000 stand of arms were distributed in
December among those classes of the people who were unable
to provide them for themselves. In April 1791, the interference
of the national assembly with the administration of church pro-
perty having excited the greatest indignation in the minds of the
most rigid papists, especially in the south and west of the king-
dom, the levy of a new patriotic army of 100,000 men was im-
mediately ordered. The first decrees concerning the new political
relations of the catholic hierarchy, the public administration of
religion, and the support of its ministers, were issued on the

II 2

100 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH, I.

12th of July 1790* ; on the 24th the new additions were made ;
and finally^ in November^ the complete civil constitution of the
clergy {constitution civile du clergS) was not only introduced^ but
an oath of submission to this new ordinance was demanded from
the clergy^ under the threat of pains and penalties^ which only
four of the bishops^ of bad reputation^ consented to takef*

The attempt at making the internal affairs of the churchy which
acknowledges only divine legislation^ subject to the civil power^
instead of merely defining its limits and severely punishing every
encroachment on the part of the church on the civil jurisdiction^
brought the friends of the constitution into serious difficulties^
which they ought to have avoided. Neither the narrow-minded
religious king nor his aunts could resolve to confess to a juring
priest^ and on that account the latter left the capital at the end
of February 1791. They were detained on their journey at
Amay-le-Duc, but as Necker had previously been, they were
also set at liberty by command of the national assembly and
suffered to continue their journey to Turin. The king was
watched like a prisoner in his palace by persons who were or-
ganized for the purpose, and during the whole summer of 1790
he was not allowed to go to his country residence at St. Cloud,
because they wished to compel him to take a juring priest as his

* These decrees are in themselves excellent, but religion and worship are
matters of opinion, and incapable of being regulated and limited by decrees
like mere civil affairs. The chief points were, that each department should
form a bishopric, and the eighty-three sees constitute ten archiepiscopal
districts. Every commune was to form a parish, even those in cities and
towns which contained no more than 6000. The bishops were to be elected,
according to the primitive usage of the church, by a majority of voices, and
no person to be qualified for election to a see till he had been at least fifteen
years a clergyman in his diocese. The bishops were to be installed by the
metropolitan or the oldest bishop. The electors were to assemble annually to
fill up the vacant places among the clergy. All fees of every kind were to
cease, the clergy in office to be paid by the treasury. The bishop of Paris was
to receive 50,000 francs, those who resided in cities with 50,000 inhabitants
20,000 francs, and all others 12,000. A cur^ in Paris was to receive 6000
francs, and in towns and villages from 2000-1200. A vicar was to receive at
least 700 francs. On the 24th an addition was made to the law respecting the
case of present incumbents, according to which the sum of 75,000 francs was
allowed to the bishop of Paris.

t On the 17th of November all the articles of the new institution were
passed into a law under the name of the canatituHon civile du clergi, and the
whole of the ecclesiastics were required to conform to the ordinance. Whoso-
ever disobeyed was to be removed and another to be appointed in his stead ;
and if after removal he should persevere in performing the duties of his office,
he was to be regarded as a disturber of the public peace and to be treated ac-
cordingly.

§ III.] PRANCB TILL OCTOBER 1791. 101

confessor^ and would not therefore allow him to go to St Cloudy
lest he might have an opportunity of employing a non-juror.
The numerous opponents of innovation^ the despotic princes^
Burke and his adherents, from this time forward took every
means of announcing that the king was a prisoner, and that
everything which he did or said must be regarded as said and
done under constraint, and therefore invalid. The king himself
confirmed this opinion of the whole conservative public of Eu-
rope, and thereby gave occasion to the democrats, daily waxing
more powerful, to accuse him of being a traitor, and to rail
against his promises as deceitful ; at length however, at the end
of December, he signified his approval of the civil constitution
of the clergy, but notwithstanding would never receive absolu-
tion from a juring priest.

The king's attachment to the confederate papistical dergy^
and his refiisal to give his assent to the law already promulgated
against emigrants and emigration, again excited a commotion
amongst all those who had been actively engaged in the scenes
of the 14th of July 1789. Since that time it had become much
easier than before to excite a popular commotion ; all the sub*
ordinate authorities were democrats, consisting of hundreds of
members of the jacobin dub, and the dreadM orators of the
sectional assemblies had only to stimulate and direct the masses
of their auditories, and a rebellion was organized. Such a tumult
took place at the end of February, under the pretence of com-
pelling the king to confirm the decrees directed against the emi-
grants. The tumultuous mob now proposed to storm the Tuile-
ries as they had previously done the Bastille, and the inhabitants
of the Faubourg St. Antoine did actually storm the castle of
Yincennes ; on diis occasion however Lafayette, at the head of
the national guards, succeeded in restoring public order. The
whole hopes of the court were now placed on Mirabeau, who
shamefully sold himself to be their tool, and yet would have
been prudent enough, if he had been able to save the monarchy,
which we very much doubt, to have sacrificed none of the real
benefits which France had obtained since May 1789. He died
however in the beginning of April 1791.

After Mirabeau's death, Danton became as it were his suc-
cessor, but he moved in a lower sphere; and externally, in
knowledge as well as in importance, was so little distinguished
in the circles, in which his dreadful and thundering voice was

102 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH« I.

not regarded as eloquence, that the court did not attempt to
secure him by bribery and corruption till it was too late ; he then
put the money in his pocket, but rendered no service in return.
Mirabeau and Talleyrand, as well as Danton, had need of the
revolution as a means of escaping the importunity of their ere*
ditors and of obtaining new resources to meet their colossal ex-
penditure; in the highest circles they required hundreds of
thousands, whilst Danton among his equals, corrupt advocates
and adventurers, only needed thousands. He had purchased a
place in the royal court but not paid the purchase«money, and
was in daily apprehension of being thrown into prison for debt.
Mirabeau's eyes had no sooner been closed, than be, Camille
Desmoulins and their companions in the clubs of the Cordeliers,
became more powerful than Lafayette, Bailly, and the frequent-
ers of madame de StaePs saloons : this appeared on the 18th of
April 1791. Lafayette was desirous of proving to the world and
the king, that the latter was not the prisoner of the populace,
although in fact the people had prevented him in the autumn of
1790 and at Easter 1791, from proceeding to St. Cloud and re-
ceiving the sacrament of the eucharist from a non-juring priest :
the general maintained that the king must rely wholly upon him
and the national guards. The attempt was made } but tiie three
republican parties of the jacobins, the philosophical and rhetori-
cal doctrinaires called girondists, — ^the favourers of a sovereign
democracy of the lowest class, of whom Marat was the oigan
and Robespierre theorator, — and theclever and desperate disturb-
ers of public order belonging to the club of the Cordeliers, were
then all united and remained so for two years, and were conse-
quently far superior to the eloquent and distinguished constitu-
tionalists. This superiority was made manifest on the 18th of
April, when Lafayette attempted to conduct the king to St. Cloud
under the protection of the national guard. The jacobins had
filled the streets with women and pikemen consistingof the dregsof
the people, who made a regular opposition to the national guards
and mingled in their ranks ; the king's progress was obstructed,
and it was found impossible to penetrate the mass ; the infantry
of the national guard remained inactive, and Lafayette issued
orders to the cavalry to draw their swords and open a way
through the opposing throng; they however refused to obey.
Lafayette himself was then obliged to announce to the king that
he must return, because it was impossible to proceed. This

§ III.] FBAKOB TILL OCTOBBB 1791. 103

fidlure produced a deep impression upon the general, who im-
mediately resigned his command^ and could only be perauaded to
resume it after the lapse of three days.

It was entirely owing to the influence of the republican party^
that a sword was suspended over the necks of the numerous
opponents of the new changes^ and particularly of the royal offi-
cers. It was determined that an extraordinary tribunal {hauie
eour) should be erected in Orleans for offences against the state^
in order to bring to trial in particular cases^ and on the express
order of the legislatiye body^ persons guilty or presumed to be
g^ty of high treason. At this time the republicans held their
re-unions under the protection of a lady, who was undoubtedly
to be preferred to madame de Stael and the frequenters of her
saloons, because the former, around whom the friends of repub*
lican principles assembled, was full of genuine enthusiasm, sim«
pUdty and inspiration for her. cause, and did not assume her po*
sition merely for the honour cf a name, on which account she
fell a sacrifice to her enthusiasm ; whilst De Stael avoided the
dangers of an enthusiast and. still remained as the ideal of di*
stinguished education and enlightenment* The saloon of the re*
publican party was in the house of madame Roland, who was
the more to be admired in consequence of the dreadful manner
in which she was roused from her beautiful dreams and visionary
notions of freedom and Parisian citisenship. She painted rege-
nerated France in such glowing colours with her captivating pen,
and found it so dreadfhl in reality I Who can fail to admire her
freedom from despondency even in prison, her calm deportment
and resolution at the contemplation of impending death, and her
perseverance in the belief of the excellency and nobility of the hu-
man mind,although badmenabused these qualities for her destruc-
tion ? Although consulted by her husband on the great political
questions of the day, she was a woman of the most modest and
exalted character; and in her memoirs has given us an account
of the circle of republicans, who in those 6till monarchical times
assembled in her house*. She there admirably delineates the
state of things, the tone and feelings of the deputies Cff the con-
stituent assembly who met at her house, as well as the cha-
racters of the ministers* She first gives us a picture of Buzot,
then of a republican from ranks of the nobility (Potion), and
finally characteristically describes the coldness and reserve of
* M^moires de Madame Roland, edit. ISSO, vol. i. p. 345.

104 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

her subsequent enemy and persecutor Robespierre. His mean
and pettifogging mind was undoubtedly better calculated to
divine the wishes of the masses and to regulate his speeches
accordingly^ than to sympathize with the noble and elevated but
exaggerated ideas of a Roland and Buzot*.

It is now sufficiently proved from the writings formerly pub-
lished in foreign countries^ and in still greater numbers during
the restoration in France, and even by the ringleaders of the
conspiracies themselves, what an unholy activity the adherents
and friends of the old regime at that time displayed. These
persons drove the king to the adoption of measures the very
opposite of his public declarations; they showed him to be weak
and equivocal, injured him, and furnished his enemies with the
opportunity of utterly destroying the monarchy itself. The
committee of the jacobins who superintended the police, and the
corresponding committee of the national assembly, were informed
of everything which was carried on at foreign courts in the busy
year 1791 in the name of the queen, the king, the princes and
emigrants; the excited nation was offended in its honour by the
declarations of the foreign powers, and willingly threw itself into
the hands of the enemies of the existing monarchy. The same
kind of men, and partly the same families who in our own days
were the means of leading Charles X. to forfeit his crown, at
that time importuned the king to escape from the hands of the
Parisian demagogues, and to take refuge in some fortified town
on the frontiers ; for no idea was at first entertained of a flight
beyond the limits of the country.

As long as the count d'Artois and the whole body of emigrants
remained in Turin, the plan was to bring the king to Lyons ; but
when the emperor Leopold gave promises, the elector of Treves
allowed the emigrants to assemble in Worms and Coblentz, and

* L. e. p. 349. — ^The memben of the moDarchical club having been threat-
ened on the 27th of Janaary, attacked in the Tuileries on the 28t£ of February,
and severely maltreated on the 28th of March, the complete domination of the
jacobins became evident in the commencement of the month of April at Mira-
beau's interment. The whole national assembly accompanied the funeral, and
the whole of the 1800 members of the jacobin club, whose president at that
time was the vicomte de Beauhamois. The president of the national assem-
bly was at first desirous of giving precedence to the viscount and hu club, but
he declined. With respect to Mirebeau, it seems to us altogether unnecessary
to dispute concerning the sums he received from the countrjr, or to inquire
how far his patriotism went and whether he was venal : France is indescribably
indebted to him. The investigation of particular points may be seen in Von
Schutz and Wachsmuth, part i. pp. 240, 241.

§ III.] PBANCB TILL OCTOBER 1791* 105

king Gustavus of Sweden entered into correspondence with them.
It was then thought desirable that the king should take refuge
in some fortress on the eastern or northern frontier of the king-
dom. Long before Mirabeau's death, negotiations respecting a
flight had been carried on with the marquis de Bouill^, the com-
mander-in-chief of the army in Nancy. We have whole volumes
written on the various plans of effecting an escape^ and the
printed secret correspondence proves how actively these plans
were agitated*. They were however only seriously pursued
after Mirabeau's death. In this affair the weak king was the
mere instrument of his wife, his brother, and the ancient aristo-
cracy, who had just then lost all influence among the people.
The emperor Leopold played a very equivocal character, for he
excited great attention by his negotiations with Prussia and with
the French court, without any serious intention to lend speedy
and effisctual assistance.

The activity of the obscurists who surrounded, deceived and
mystified the king of Prussia, of the hated French diplomatists
of the old rigimej and of the emissaries of the queen did not
escape general observation, and therefore was well known to the
Talleyrands and Mirabeaus, and yet hopes were entertained of
outwitting these able observers ! The two most active were the
two most hated men of the former times, count d'Artois and
Calonne. The nature of Calonne's diplomatic talents may be
best learned firom a paper published by him in March 1796 1>
and those talents were combined with a want of principle and
fashionable superficiality, which was unhappily common to him
with all those men who were entrusted vdth the most important
afEurs of the whole of the states of Europe. Whilst Calonne was
pursuing one course, another cabal wholly independent of him
was carried on in foreign countries by Breteuil, the king's pleni-
potentiary, who was hostile both to the count d'Artois and to
Calonne. At length the queen, with her husband's permission,
despatched cotmt Stephen de Durfort to her brother Leopold,

* It is usually stated that these plans were agitated from 1791 ; but the first
letter on the subject is one from the king to Bouill^ of the 3rd of October
1790, dated from St. Cloud.

f We refer to an article in the ' Courrier de Londres/ afterwards published
in the form of a pamphlet and entitled, ' Tableau de I'Europe jusqu'au com-
mencement de 1796, et Pens^ sur ce qui pent procurer promptement une
Paix solide, suivi d'un Appendix sur plusieurs questions importantes par M. de
Calonne, ministre d'6tat k Londres.' Mars 1796, Ixxii. and p. 247.

106 FIFTH PBRIOD.«-*FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

who waa travelling in Italj. This mission and its object were
perfectly well-known to the national authorities in France^ al-
though Durfort at first only went to the grand-duchess Christina
in Brussels, and ih>m thence with recommendations from her to
the emperor Leopold. The emperor discussed the subject with
the deputies of the queen^ and sent Durfort back to PariS) to
learn with certainty to what extent the public declarations of king
Louis and his ministers corresponded with their real sentiments*
On his return, Durfort met the emperor in Mantua, and assured
him in the name of the king, that he was secretly opposed to
everything on which his ministers publicly resolved and oon«
sented to in his name.

Leopold then entered into an agreement with the count d'Ar-
tois to adopt the violated rights of the Oerman princes, to whom
moreover the French nation had offered a compensation^ as a
pretence for assembling a body of German troops on the north*
west frontiers of Flanders as far as Alsace, of Swiss and Sardi-
nians in the Jura, and of Spaniards in the Pyi^nees. Little
confidence however could be placed in Leopold's promises i the
troops did not appear on the frontiers, and fireteuil was not
wrong in advising the king to flee from Paris, and not to make
himself dependent on foreign aid. The emperor, instead of ren-
dering any active assistance, only did mischief by his empty pro-
mises, which were first made publicly known in a printed letter
in July I7OI1 and then proved far more useful to the wildest
opponents of monarchy than to its friends. The moment waa
unfortunately chosen which the emperor fixed upon for address-
ing his ridiculous, or at least superfluous circular to the princes^
which he had agreed upon with the count d'Artois^ and dated
from Padua on the I8U1 of May*. The national assembly at
this very time had issued a decree against the prince of Cond^,
who was threatening the French people with an army of nobles

* The chief points are as follows :— " Les principales puissances sont invitees
4 s'unir k lai pour declarer k la France que les souverains regardent tons la
cause du roi tr^s-chretien, comme la leur propre ; qu'ils demandent^ oue ce

prince et sa familie soient mis sur le champ en pleine liberie *.qu ils se

r^nlraient potir venger avec le plus grand ^clat tons les attentats ult^rieura

quelconques qu'enfin, ils ne reconnaitraient comine lois constitationelles,

que celles qui seront munies du consentement volontaire du roi jouissant d'une
liberie parfaite; mais qu'au contraire, ils emploiefont de concert tous les
moyens qui sont en leur pouvoir pour faire cesser le scandale d'une usurpation
de pouvoirs qui porterait le caract^re d'une r^olte ouverte, et dont il importe-
rait k tous les gouvememens de r£urope de r^rimer le Ameste aumplB."

§ III.] FRANCB TILL OOTOBBB 1791. 107

which he had collected^ and another against cardinal de Roche«
foucault, who had excommunicated two priests for having taken
the oath prescribed by the civil constitution of the clergy, as re*
quired by the laws of the state*

The opinion now became general, that the king was meditating
flight, and it was therefore in the highest degree imprudent to
carry on the preparations with so little concealment as was really
the case, and to employ the creatures of the court in the afiUr.
Count Fersen, a Swedish courtier, who enjoyed the favour of
the queen's frivolous circle, not only ordered a special carriage for
the royal family, but performed the office of coachman in person
till they had passed beyond the city*. Lafayette kept the king
under close surveillance by the national guards, and it therefore
appears incomprehensible that he should have been unacquainted
with the restless exertions of the busy servants of the court |
for this reason, he was accused on the one hand by the aristo-
oraoy for having connived at the flight of the king, in order to
reduce him completely under his power ; and on the other hand
by the democrats of having wilfully overlooked all these sym-
ptoms in order to please his cousin Bouill6#

The king's flight was appointed for the 19th of June, and on
the 2nd of the same month he confirmed those pubUo decrees
against which he secretly protested on the 10th in a paper,
which was first made public after his flight) this contributed to
place both the monarch and the monarchy in as disadvantageous
a light as the democrats could have wished^ On the very day
therefore on which the king's appointed journey was put off, the
Parisians gave a decided proof to the three most vehement mem<*
bers of the national assembly, that they alone ei\joyed the oonfi-
denoe of the majority. It was known that the members of the
present legislature would magnanimously exclude themselves

* We are indebted to the restoration for a whole library of reports^ 6cc.
written by eye-witnesseB, in which each seeks to justify himself^ or is desiroas
of placing his services in the old times or concern inff the old times in their true
light. Among all the accounts, the 'M^moires du Marquis de Bouill^/ which
appeared in 1792« the 'M^moires de Choiseul/ those of the baron de Damas>
and of Messrs. Goguelat and de Klinglin, are most worthy of attention. These
are all to be found in the collection of M^moires concemiog the revolution. In
^e recently published (1842) ' M6moires de B. Harare/ there is a notice
respecting the scenes which took place in Paris, which proves that all the
accounts of the stillness and dignity of the people, and the bearing of the royal
family are false. Harare and Gr^goure were the persons most actively em-
ployed for the queen and the dauphin on the arrival and alighting of the family
at the Tuileries. See vol. ii. p. 320-326.

108 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

from being re-elected as members of the next assembly^ and
therefore the Parisians resolved to confer the highest muni-
cipal offices in Paris on the democratic deputies. On the 19th
of June^ the members of the new criminal court of Paris were
chosen. Robespierre received the majority of votes for the office
of public prosecutor^ Potion for that of president^ and Buzot
for vice-president. The king's journey was put off from the
19th till the 21st at one o'clock in the morning, for some insigni-
ficant reason, as is usual in courts, and it was conceded to the
tender entreaties of madame de Tourzel, who had the chaz^ of
the royal children, that they should be taken into the king's car-
riage instead of being entrusted to a robust captain of the guards,
as had at first been intended. The king's brother (Louis XVIII.)
left the capital at the same time as the king himself, and took
the road to Valenciennes. This city lies at a distance of only
forty hours from Paris, and in this way the count de Provence
fortunately reached the frontiers, whilst the king took the road
to Montm^y, which is double the distance of Valenciennes.

Bouill^ had made all his preparations for the 19th ; hussars
and other soldiers had been placed at all the stations, which it
was necessary to withdraw in consequence of the change of time,
and again to replace ; these movements excited the attention of
the whole country, in which at that time every citizen kept a
strict watch upon all the movements of the military and per-
sons of distinction. For this reasons, the pickets which were
posted were very weak and strictly watched by the citizens, pea-
sants, and national guards. It was absurd to suffer the king to
travel in a splendid carriage as the pretended chamberlain of the
pretended baroness Korff, because he must have been so easily
recognized fix)m his image on the coin and from his family
features ; he was in fact recognized by the postmaster of Cha-
lons, but being well-disposed towards the king he kept silent.
The party was obliged to stop two hours in Etoges near Mont-
mirail in order to have some repairs done to their heavy carriage,
which was the most unsuitable possible for such a flight. Tlie
pickets also proved to be the means of delay instead of any ad-
vantage. At Pont Somerville, three hours from Ch&lons, the
officers did not venture to allow their posts to remain, after they
had waited a whole hour upon the king and been threatened ;
whereas the king supposed they would come later, and waited till
seven o'clock. It is really a matter of wonder, that this unwieldy

§ III.] FRANCE TILL OCTOBER 1791. 109

caravan of nine persons wiUi two couriers, one to each carriage^
and which required eleven horses at every post, should have pro-
ceeded so far as St. Menehould without being recognized ; there
however the king unfortunately showed himself and was imme-
diately known by the postmaster and by the officer, whom
Bouill^ had sent with the command of 140 dragoons. Drouet
despatched his son on horseback by a nearer route to the next
station at Yarennes, in order that the king might be detained
at the bridge ; the officer is therefore said to have ordered his
dragoons to mount ; but the national guards had taken posses-
sion of the stables, and means were found of despatching a single
under-officer only after the young Drouet, who did not however
succeed in overtaking him till he had reached Varennes.

The citizens of Varennes immediately stopped the passage of
the bridge, but the king could readily have opened a way for
himself, had he allowed the gardes du corps, by whom he was
accompanied, to have had recourse to arms and forced a passage :
this however he refused. He was then compelled to remain in
the house of Sausse, a solicitor of the commune, till orders were
received from the national assembly. The officer who com-
manded the picket of hussars at Varennes ordered his men to
draw their swords against the national guard ; but they refused
to obey. In a short time Lafayette and the national assembly
were informed of the king's arrest. The former had already
despatched one of his adjutants named Romeuf in pursuit of the
fugitive, and the latter deputed three of its members. Potion,
Bamave and Latour Maubourg, to bring the king back to Paris,
and to accompany him in the carriage, so that he and his family
might be protected from the insults or violence of the populace.
The wonder is that they were not sooner brought back, for they
had travelled only about 140 miles in twenty-two hours, and
their flight, which had commenced at one o'clock in the morning,
was known in Paris at seven o'clock in the evening. Romeuf
had removed the royal family from Varennes before the mem-
bers of the national assembly arrived, who first met the king in
Epemay. The journey back to Paris, which occupied eight
days, annihilated the last vestige of monarchy, for the presence
of an officer of the national guard and the commissioners in the
carriage not only gave to the whole the appearance of the con-
veyance of a state prisoner, but they had also the cruelty to bring
along 'with them in bonds the gardes du corps, who, at the risk

110 FIFTH PERIOD. FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

pf their lives^ had done their duty to the sovereign. The latter
were cruelly maltreated by the mob^ especially in Paris, and their
lives with great difficulty preserved from being sacrificed to the
fury of the rabble.

One of the worst consequences of the flight was, that posses-*
sion was now obtained of a document from which it was evident
that no confidence was to be placed either in the word or even
on the oath of the king, in any case in which royal privileges
were concerned ; and it was also seen by experience, that it was
quite possible to govern without a king. As regards the former,
it is difficult to decide whether the king destroyed the confi->
dence reposed in him by the nation more by the first declara-
tion, which he left behind him on his flight, than by the second,
which Barnave drew up for him on his return in order to excuse
the first. On the morning after his departure, the king had
caused the great seal to be given to the national assembly, ao«
companied by a paper, in which he gave a detailed account of
tlie reasons by which be was influenced to flee from the capital,
and which also constituted the grounds of his thereby recalling
all that he had previously repeatedly conceded and sworn to ob-
serve*. The national assembly having suspended him from his
ofiice and appointed three deputies to examine him and the
queen respecting the motives and objects of their flight, he suf-
fered himself to be persuaded by Barnave to send in another
paper, which was wholly opposed to his former declaration. No
one ought to be deceived, because a writer like Thiers, in his

* The author of this royal declaration first minutely details all the indigni-
ties and maltreatment to which the king had been exposed since October 17S9.
He then proceeds as follows : " As long as the king could entertain any hope
that order or happiness would result from the resolutions of the national as-
sembly, and fVom his remaining in their neighbourhood, he had not shrunk
from making any sacrifice, and had not even once complained of the depriva-
tion of freedom to which he had been subjected since the 6th of October ; at
present it was different. The result of all that had occurred had been the an-
nihilation of the monarchy — the violation of the rights of property — the in*
security of person and complete anarchy in all parts of the kingdom, without
even the appearance of authority. In order to put a stop to this condition of
things, the king had long secretly determined to protest against everything
which had been put forth in his name during his captivity, and wished now
to submit to the French people what would be the rule of nis conduct." The
author of the paper then puts the following words into the mouth of the king,
addressed to those whom he calls his good people of Paris : " Frenchmen and
good people of Paris, beware of the suggestions of partisans : come back to
your king ; he will always prove your friend, when your holy religion will be
reverenced, when the government shall be re*established on a solid footing,
and your freedom based upon immoveable foundations."

§ III.] VBANCB TILL OCTOBER 1791. Ill

litdenesB of mind, endeavours to persuade his fellow-country-
men, by rhetorical arts, that such sophistry, evasions and sub-
tlety are examples of distinguished political wisdom, and that
such a mixture of weakness and falsehood is worthy of a states-
man. The tone and manner of the document betray a degree
of weakness* which must necessarily have exposed the king to
contempt, because goodness of heart without firmness of pur-
pose is more injurious in social intercourse than evil intention ;
the latter is easily observed and makes resistance possible, be-
cause DO deceit is practised. In the same manner as the unfor-
tunate king at that time has left us a memorial of his timidity,
his cold, egotistical, scornftil and sceptical brother, who succeeded
in escaping from the kingdom in company with count Fersen, a
companion worthy of himself, has left a memorial of his frivolity
and miserable spirit by his description of this flight dedicated to
his favourite IFAvarayt-

This most trivial publication was presented to the public just
at the time when its author was restored to the throne of France
by the allied powers, and by the distinguished people in France
who were like-minded, and is characterixed by all that emptiness
and audacity which was the true emblem of the court, techni-
cally called the new one. It is full of the conceits of the feeble
court circle as to the value of their forms, of selfishness, and
attention to the most contemptible trifles, to which things of great
and weighty importance were regarded as secondary, of mere
plays upon words with all their accompaniments. It makes
one shudder to think, that miserable witticisms, epicurism and

* He declared : " Je n'ai fait jamais d'autres protestations que celle qu'on
a troav6 aprds mon depart. Cette protestation ne porte pas mdme ainsi que
le conteou du memoire, sur le fond des principes de la constitution, mais sur
la forme des sanctions, c'est k dire, sur le peu de liberty dont je paraissais
jouir, et sur ce que lea d^crets n'ayant pas M pr^ent^ en masse, je ne pou-
vois pas juger de Tensemble de la constitution. Le principal reproche oon»
tenu dans le memoire se rapporte aux difficultes dans les rooyens de I'admini-
stration et d'ex^cution. Tat reconnu dans mon voyage, que I* opinion jnAlique
Unit tUeidie enfoveur de la cwuHtution, Je n'avais pas cru pouvoir connaStre
pleineroent cette opinion publique k Paris ; mais d'apr^ les notions que j'ai
recueillies personnellement dans ma route, je me suis convaincu combien il
^tait n^cessaire pour le bonheur de la constitution de donner de la force aux
pouvoirs Stabiles pour maintenir Tordre public."

t ^ Relation d'un Voyage k Bruxelles et k Coblenoe (1701)/ in which it is
said in the very commencement, that the idea of a flight had been entertained
as early as 1790 ; then it proceeds, " J'avois cru devoir mettre Peronnet, alors
mon gar^on de garde robe, dans ma confidence." Madame de Balbi, D'Avaray,
Ia Jeunesae the postillion, are all prominent characters in his thoughts and
writings.

112 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH.I.

daintiness should absorb the whole attention of a prince, at the
very time in which the greatest dangers were impending over
his brother and his throne. The observations of madame Roland
in her democratic memoirs form a singular contrast with the
considerations of this monarchical book, published by a prince
many years afterwards, when he should have learned more wis-
dom in the school of adversity. She knows not how to express
her delight that the time was come in which the idea of a repub-
lic was about to be realized, such as she had fashioned in her
own mind by her own course of reading and study of ancient
Rome ; the persons who frequented her saloons, with the excep-
tion of Robespierre, shared in her transports. They immediately
declared that the flight of the king would furnish them with an
opportunity of erecting the ideal republic of Potion, Buzot and
Brissot, or as they expressed it, of substituting a stable consti-
tution for one wholly untenable *. Robespierre had no sympathy
with this outburst of enthusiasm among those who were still his
friends, for his prosaic mind had no sense or conception of such
ideality; he was accustomed at that time sneeringly to ask —
what the thing called a republic was ?

The second evil consequence of the king's flight, already
mentioned, was, that the government was carried on for some
time in a republican spirit and the king set completely aside ;
from the 21st of June till the end of September he was deprived
of the whole of his influence. The great seal having been put
into the custody of the national assembly, their resolutions could
be carried into execution without the king's sanction, and oaths
of fidelity to the assembly were taken. The. national assembly
entrusted the various branches of administration to special com-
mittees, appointed magistrates and authorities under their im-
mediate superintendence, and sent commissioners into the de-
partments. The king was guarded like a prisoner by Lafayette's
national guard, under the pretence of observation, and the move-
ments of the queen were very strictly watched ; and the gardes
du corps was formally abolished by a decree. The weak king

* " The king has proved/' observed Buzot, " that he has no wish to pre-
serve the existing constitution formed of such heterogeneous parts, and that
the present was the right moment ' de s'assurer une plus homog^ne et qu'il
falloit preparer les esprits k la r^publique/ " For the attainment of this object,
it was resolved to set up a journal called ' Le R^publicain/ which was edited,
according to Buzot 's views, by Thomas Payne, Brissot, Condorcet andAcbille
Duchatelet. This journal excited great attention on account of the editors,
but was soon discontinued.

§ III.] PRANOB TILL OCTOBER 1791* 113

submitted to the interrogation of the commissioners who had
been sent to him by the national assembly, and excused himself
by a subterfuge as miserable as the declaration which by Bar-
nave's advice he delivered in writing respecting his protest*.
The imprudence of the king's friends in the national assembly,
who were not only opposed to the small number of democrats,
but also to the half-republican direction of Lafayette, Clermont
Tonn^re, BaiUy, Malouet and others, gave great weight to the most
vehement party, and it required even at that time no small pains
to prevent a public accusation. Two hundred and ninety-one
deputies not only withdrew from the deliberations respecting the
inviolability and suspension of the king, but they protested also
against aU the decrees about to be issued during the suspension
of the royal authority, whereby even Bamave, who since the
flight had been won over to his cause, fell into discredit in the
eyes of his former friends.

The national assembly appointed seven committees which were
to draw up reports on every point connected with the king's
flight; these reports were furnished on the 15th and 16th of
July. According to these committees, the assembly had three
questions to resolve, on which the fate of the king depended.
The first was, whether the king by his flight had committed any
crime? The second was, whether he had made himself guilty
of any oflence by the paper which he had caused to be delivered
to the national assembly on the morning after his flight? The
third question was, whether it appeared from the flight of the
king, and from the paper delivered to the national assembly, that
he was particeps criminis with the marquis de Bouill^, who had
decidedly adopted measures to facilitate the invasion of the coun-
try by foreign enemies and to surround the king with an army
of malcontents ? The majority of the deputies both spoke and
voted in favour of the king ; only seven came forward and avowed
themselves as warm republicans, and these alone were praised
and honoured as the men of the people. These seven were,
Gregoire, Petion, Buzot, Vadier, Putraint, the elder Robespierre
and H^brard, an advocate from Ancillon. In order not com-

* D'Andr^> Adrien Duport and Tronchet received from the king the follow-
ing answer: "Je vois, messieurs, par Tobjet de la mission qui vous est donn^e.
qu'il ne s'agit point ici d'un interrogatoire ; mais je veux bien r^pondre au
desire de TassembUe nationale, et je ne craindrai jamais de rendre publics les
motifs de ma conduite."

VOL. VI. I

114 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. I.

pletely to lose the public favour, the monarchical majority was
obliged to attach some conditions to their acquittal in order
to meet the outcry of treason by which it was on all sides as-
sailed, and the public anxiety, which was loudly expressed and
set forth in innumerable petitions. The first of these conditions
was, that the suspension which had been pronounced against
the king on the 25th of June should continue in force till the
constitution in its complete form should be presented to the
king for his acceptance. The second was calculated to make
any recall of the royal assent, when once given, irrevocable. It
was resolved, that the recall of the king's oath, or any under-
taking on his part directed against the constitution, should be
regarded as a renunciation of all right to the throne. From the
moment in which the king shall take any such step, he shall be
considered as a private man, and as such be made responsible for
the whole of his actions.

The opponents of the new constitution soon excited commo-
tions among the people similar to that which had taken place in
October 17B9, and were eager to avail themselves of the pretence
of a petition to the national assembly against the resolutions in
favour of the king, in the same manner as advantage had been
taken of the prevailing dearth. Brissot and Choderlot de la Close,
the satellite and companion of the duke of Orleans, drew up
a petition, which was signed in the streets, in coffee-houses
and wine-shops, by women, children, and vagabonds of all de-
scriptions. The tumultuous mob of petitioners who subscribed
this petition were to be directed against the national assembly,
in the same manner as in October 1789; the assembly however
issued some severe decrees against this mischievous plan. The
subscribers were forcibly dispersed in the opera-house and on
the Place de la Bastille by the national guard, and therefore
Danton and Marat hit upon the idea of having the petition car-
ried to the Champ de Mars, and there signed upon the altar of
the nation erected in July 1790. The men who announced and
carried out the plan of assembling in the Champ de Mars after-
wards became the leaders of the infuriate republicans, who
preached robbery and murder. In addition to Danton, Potion,
Buzot and Brissot, we find the names of Legendre, Fabre d'E-
glantine, Fr^ron, Robert, Marat, Bonneville, Chaumette and Ca-
mille Desmoulins. They were well acquainted with the cruel
tactics of rousing the bloodthirsty passions of the mob by the

§ III.] FRANCS TILL OCTOBER 1791. 115

sight of blood ; they therefore caused two persons, only influenced
by innocent curiosity, to be torn to pieces as traitors before the
altar, and then Dauton and Camille Desmoulins mounted the
altar of the nation, stimulated the minds of the rabble against
the constitutionalists, and led them to resolve to rush in a body
into the national assembly and there proclaim their opinions.

It was all in vain that Lafayette presented himself with a
party of the national guard ; he saw that the time was now come
to proclaim martial law and act vigorously against the rabble, or
to give way completely to anarchy and confusion ; he therefore
caused the whole of the national guard to be assembled in front
of the Hotel de Ville and the red flag to be unfurled. The
mayor headed the march of the guards with the flag of blood
carried before him. Bailly as well as Lafayette caused the de-
mand prescribed by the law to be made, and called upon the
people to disperse. The appeal was answered by vollies of
stones — ^the mayor gave orders to fire — Lafayette commanded
one battalion only to fire, but the whole line followed the ex-
ample, and the multitude was immediately seized with a panic
and fled. The oflicial report states, that only fourteen persons
remained dead on the field ; but other accounts swell the num-
ber to more than a hundred, and, as is generally the case, most
of them innocent persons. The ringleaders profited by this in
order to embitter the minds of the lower classes, who possessed
all the power of the state, and fill them with fury against the
originators of these severe measures. Lafayette was no longer
the idol of the people, and Bailly, at a later period, paid the
penalty of his severity with his life. The unfortunate position
of the constitutional deputies, between the wild anarchists on
the one hand and the blind friends of the old regime on the
other, made it unhappily necessary for them to spare the dema-
gogues; otherwise they would then have closed the clubs of the
jacobins and Cordeliers, and stopped up the source of all these
disturbances. Many of the members of the jacobin club left it
in afiright and sought for admission among the Feuillants, but
these feelings of terror soon passed away and the jacobins be-
came stronger than ever.

The draft of the constitution was at this time complete, but it
was now to be revised, and consequently the time for the libe-
ration of the royal family from arrest was put off till the end of
September ; nothing however was ultimately changed, and the

i2

116 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. U

king unconditionally accepted the constitution as submitted to
him. He appeared twice in the assembly, and made a solemn
declaration of his determination to uphold and maintain the new
constitution. We shall summarily enumerate in a note some of
the chief advantages for which new France is indebted to the
constituent assembly*, in order to prove that in spite of all the
imperfections of the new constitution, and in spite of the ten
years' sufferings and sorrows with which they were purchased,
such substantial benefits, which shall remain to all future gene-
rations, cannot be purchased at too great a price.

Immediately afler the termination of the labours of the con-
stituent assembly, the men who wished for a new revolution,
and not without reason, alleged, that the ill-assorted compound
of American democracy and English aristocracy proclaimed in
the new constitution was untenable, and got possession of all the
influence which Lafayette, Larochefoucault, Lameth and others
had previously possessed. Bailly retired and Potion was ap-
pointed mayor of Paris ; Lafayette resigned the command of the
national guards, partly in consequence of a resolution that each
commander of six legions of the guard should in future in his
turn become commander-in-chief. Among the six persons thus
entitled to command was Santerre the brewer, the friend and
companion of the duke of Orleans, — the man who exercised a pre-
eminent influence over the men of the faubourgs, when their

* We may express these advantages in a word by saying, that a definite
legal order (however bad it might be in many points) was substituted for arbi-
trary military rule, or for traditionary usages to be sought and found only in
ancient documents. It may be observed in detail, that by the new division of
the kingdom and the centralization of the government, the FVench were now
made one nation, and the administration of law and justice really improved.
The whole system of criminal administration was changed ; the improvement
of the civil tribunals announced, torture abolished, as well as all the barbarous
punishments of the middle ages, and trial by jury introduced. Complete tolera-
tion was proclaimed, and all monkish vows, as well as corporations and guilds,
were abolished. Personal freedom was secured and arbitrary arrests (letirea
de cachef) declared illegal. Equality of contribution to the necessities of the
state on the basis of property was established, and all internal tolls done away
with. Tithes and- feudal rights of every description were annihilated. The
division and sale of church property and domains gave thousands an interest
in the soil and put an end to begging. The finances and collection of the
public taxes were systematically arranged, the freedom of the press announced,
and the rights of primogeniture, as well as substitutions by will, made illegal.
It has been calculated, that notwithstanding the immense loss of life which
France has suffered, the effect of the last two measures has been to increase
its population one-fifth. The sale of offices ceased, and in conclusion it may
be observed, that of the 2500 laws passed by the constituent assembly, scarcely
25 remain in force at the present day.

§ III.] FRANCE TILL OCTOBER l791. 117

services were needed for acts of tumult or violence^ and who bore
the same relation to the lowest classes of the people which La-
fayette did to the middle classes of the citizens. The elections
throughout the whole kingdom fell into the hands of the oppo-
nents of the new constitution^ into whose merits we shall not
here further enter^ because it only endured eleven months^ and
brought with it into the world the seeds of its own dissolution.
This was the case^ because it placed a chamber of deputies with-
out the correction of an upper house on a level with the king and
not subordinate to him ; because it sanctioned the uninterrupted
sittings of the chamber, provided for its continual renewal, and
wholly excluded all the deputies who had seats in one chamber
from being elected members of the succeeding one. The elec-
tors of the deputies were chosen by all the active citizens of the
kingdom, and in order to possess this qualification ^it was only
necessary that a man should contribute in taxes to the state the
value of three days^ labour ; by virtue of this arrangement, there-
fore, all the people of the kingdom from one end to another
were brought into a state of universal commotion by the lowest
classes every two years. The qualification of an elector, accord-
ing to this first constitution, was the possession or enjoyment of
the profit rents of an estate, amounting in rich neighbourhoods
to the value of four, in middle of two, and in poor of one hun-
dred and fifty days' labour; but what is singular enough, no
property quaUfication whatever was necessary for a deputy. If
to the few points of the new constitution here referred to we
add, that the king had no power to dissolve the chamber, pos-
sessed no right of originating measures, and that no minister
was allowed either to sit or vote, we shall have no difficulty in
explaining why the legislative chamber, as it was called, which
assembled in October, immediately conceived the idea of de-
stroying both the constitution and its auUiors.

118 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

CHAPTER II.

THE MONARCHICAL STATES OF EUROPE TILL THE WAR OF
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

§1.

SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE WAR WITH TURKEY IN 1788.

The order of the nobility played so very dilBPerent a part in the
different states of Europe in the last deeennia of the eighteenth
century, that the idea could no longer be entertained that the
nobles constituted the support of the monarchy. In Austria
Joseph II. was obstructed by the nobility in all his attempts to
found a pure monarchical system^ and to carry into effect those
wholesome improvements which the spirit of the age impera-
tively demanded ; and this same nobility succeeded in completely
bringing back the administration under Leopold and Francis into
its ancient chaos. In Poland the nobles sold themselves^ the
kingdom and the king to the highest bidder. In Sweden it was
the nobles who prevented Gustavus III.^ during the war be-
tween Russia and the Turks^ from turning the monarchical
power^ which he had hitherto used for his own splendour and
advantage, to an attempt to free the kingdom from foreign de~
pendence. The nobles first obstructed the king in the decisive
moment, and at a later period put him to deaths although the
haughty leaders of the Swedish nobility, like the Bernese patri-
cians, sold and exposed themselves to martyrdom for monarchs
beyond the limits of their fatherland. Among the Swedes we
shall merely quote count Fersen as an example, and among the
Swiss the trivial baron Bezenval. We have already referred to
the character which Fersen played at the court of France and
among the gay companions of the queen; to the manner in which,
according to the red-book, he was recompensed with pensions
and gifts drawn from the purses of the IVench people ; and to
the active share which he took in devising and carrying into
execution measures for the king's flight : it can therefore excite
no astonishment that Catharine II. found no difBculty in using
a part of the Swedish nobility against the interests both of the
king and kingdom.

As early as 1775 Gustavus III. had been compelled to make

§ I.] RUSSIA TILL 1 788. 1 ] 9

a royal monopoly of brandy, in consequence of the expenditure
of his court, the maintenance of festivals, his patronage of the
fine arts and his own extravagance ; notwithstanding this, how-
ever, he continued to enjoy the favour of the people during the
whole of the decennium in which he delivered the Swedes from
the yoke of the avaricious and haughty nobility. The account of
his administration, which he rendered to the diet in 1778^ clearly
proves that he had made a most beneficent use of the power with
which he had been entrusted ; in the following decennium, how-
ever, it was quite otherwise. From the year 1777 Oustavus
entered on a path, which Catharine II. must have seen him
tread with .pleasure, and therefore did everything in her power
to encourage him in his folly. He strove to imitate her splen-
dour without being possessed of her means, and wished, hke her,
to become a patron and protector of the fine arts. In the year
1777 Oustavus took a very expensive journey to Petersburg,
where the empress gave him a most splendid reception and ho-
noured him by pompous festivities ; and because she possessed
that very important capacity in a ruler, of knowing and judging
men at the first glance, she at the same time remarked all his
weak points and afterwards turned them admirably to account.
Oustavus also became acquainted with her, and, as he said,
learned not to respect her ; but nevertheless, through a subtle
jest of this clever woman, he suffered himself to be induced to
bring along with him, from Petersburg to Sweden, the Russian
custom of wearing uniforms. He introduced a species of dress
firom Petersburg which he called a national uniform, although
in reality it was nothing else than a court dress according to
Uie Russian fashion. This occurred at the very time in which
the king found himself under the necessity of suppressing a re-
bellion by force of arms in the province of Dalecarlia, which,
above all others, had aided him in the attainment of absolute
power.

The empress of Russia often afterwards availed herself, in a
masterly manner, of her personal acquaintance with king Ous-
tavus and his splendid weaknesses for the promotion of her
own views, and especially of Potemkin's colossal projects. The
king of Sweden was the only one who in June 1780 adopted,
with something like a comical seriousness, the Russian proposal
of an armed neutrality in the American war, and who became
ridiculous when it appeared that the empress of Russia had no

120 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH.II.

intention of doing any mischief to the English^ whom she greatly
favoured. In the very same year she had a meeting with the
emperor Joseph II. in Mohilew^ who travelled further with her,
but was as little deceived in her real character as Gustavus III.,
and who completely saw through Potemkin's plans ; she con-
trived notwithstanding to win him over to her cause, so that
even before his mother's death he concluded a treaty with her in
Tscherskoeselo, by which the Turks and Tatars were left to their
fate. Maria Theresa was no sooner dead, than Catharine II., re*
lying confidently upon the agreements into which she had en-
tered with Joseph, suffered Potemkin to make conquests in the
very midst of peace. The Turks and other powers roused up
the Swedes, but Gustavus III. was prevented by money, flattery
and fStes &om actively interfering in the cause of the ancient
ally of Sweden at the proper time.

King Gustavus was in need of money to meet the expenses of
a royal tour in the south of Europe, in which he wished to ex*
hibit the splendour of his kingdom, to gain a further knowledge
of the arts and artists,, to patronise music and the opera, and to
seek for new pleasures. The empress was informed of his necessi*
ties, and caused him therefore to be invited to a second interview,
which did not take place in Petersburg, but in Friederichs-
hamm. The very circumstance of the empress having come as
it were to meet him must have been very flattering to his vanity;
and on this occasion not only the empress but Daschkoff put in
practice all those arts so familiar to beautiful, clever and well-
informed ladies of fashion to enchant the gallant and knightly
king. Daschkoff, as well as the empress, belonged to that class
of women whose virtues and personal qualities enabled them
thoroughly to despise all that we plebeians require &om their
sex. All the journals of Europe were for a time filled with ac-
counts of the fStes, the immense pomp, and the wearisome flat-
tery and wit with which the knightly king of Sweden was enter-
tained and glorified for four days (June 1783). The two royal
personages occupied adjoining houses, connected by a passage,
and both played the comedy of friendship to perfection. We
are now well assured that all that took place in Friederichs-
hamm and was admired in Europe was really a comedy, because
the declarations of the king as well as those of the empress,
showing that they entertained a mutual hatred and contempt,
have been since made public.

§ I.] BU88IA TILL 1788. 121

For the sake of these four days alone^ not only the ordinary
rooms of both houses were splendidly fitted up, but a grand ball-
room was prepared and means were provided for acting French
plays ; this was qmte suitable, for both the king and the empress^
as is weU known, cultivated the drama, and both were very much
alike in the kind and measure of their dramatic talents. Italian
singers and operas were of course indispensable at such a mo-
narchical fSte according to the old style; the empress alone,
however, appeared at last as mistress of the diplomatic art of
using this peculiar foreign frivolity in order to roll the whole
disgrace of this empty vanity upon the king, and to secure for
herself the glory of the substantial advantage obtained by these
vain arts in the increase of her political importance and weight.
On his departure from Friederichshamm, the king was not
ashamed to accept of 200,000 roubles, under pretence of compen-
sation for the expense of his journey, in order to meet the costs
of his Italian tour, which he undertook in the autumn of 1783*
Whilst Gustavus spent eleven months on his journey, and in the
circle of all those societies in which the manners are said to be
refined and a taste for the arts is cultivated, he amassed debts and
contracted a frivolity of manner which the inhabitants of th^
north should leave to the sole possession of the dwellers in more
sunny climes. During all this time Potemkin dealt with the
Turks and Tatars according to his wiU, and when at length Gus-
tavus became desirous of taking up the cause of his ally, he had
almost completely lost the love of the whole body of citizens and
peasants, in consequence of his Italian journey and the course
of conduct which he immediately afterwards pursued.

After the removal of the Orlofis the Russian empire fell com-
pletely into the powei: of count Potemkin, who was raised to his
present eminence and maintained there by the favour of the em-
press alone. By his Russian qualildes he made himself indispen-
sable to the empress, even when he had long renounced his post
of honour, and ceased to be treated as her husband. His dispo-
sition was as brutal, haughty and imperious as that of the Or-
lofis, and by the terror which he inspired he kept the domestic
enemies of the empress in constant apprehension, gave enchant-
ing fStes, furnished at unlimited cost, to the Russian grandees,
and thus furnished them with opportunities of exhibiting and
idolizing themselves in a manner suitable to their tastes, by
which they were prevented from entering into conspiracies against

122 PIPTH PBRIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

the crown. Potemkin^ who^ like the English in India^ paid little
regard to means or morality^ like them also undertook the most
gigantic projects against the indolent orientals^ carried them
through with surpassing boldness and after the northern fashion,
excited the astonishment of all Europe, as the English also do,
and gained for himself and the empress the honours of Semira-
mis and Nimrod. Unhappily, the whole course of Potemkin^s
activity, both in poUtics and war, was so closely bound up with
the private history of the empress, that we must cast a passing
glance upon this point; but we shall not dwell longer on the
topic than is absolutely necessary to a proper understanding of
the connexion of public historical events.

The empress Catharine adopted measures at her court for the
gratification of her own low desires similar to those to which
Louis XV . had recourse in Versailles for the contentment of his.
The object of the empress's personal preference was always a
public personage in Petersburg, as was the case with that of the
king in Versailles ; and he or she enjoyed indisputably the first
rank at court, so long as that preference continued to be in*
dulged. Immediately after her husband's murder Catharine IL
made a court officer of the person selected to supply his place,
so that, if Orloff and Potemkin had not occupied, this honoured
position*, the empress's government might be divided into
twelve parts, according to the number of her twelve favourites.
The Orlofis as well as Potemkin, however, retained their uncon-
ditional dominion over the empress even long after this high
court office had been transferred to others ; so that the rule of

* We believe that we shall best describe the relation of the persons honoured
by the especial favour of the empress, by adopting the language of major Mas-
son, who was for ten years a close observer of the whole course of these events.
In his ' M^moires Secrets sur la Russle, et particulidrement sur la fin da rdgne
de Catharine II. et sur celui de Paul I.' Paris 1804, vol. ii. p. 141, he writes
as follows : "Mais Catharine II. seule, r^alisant les fables de la reine d'Achem,
et subordonnant I'amour, le sentiment, et la pudeur de son sexe k des besoins
physiques imp^rieux, a profit^ de sa puissance pour donner au monde un ex-
emple unique et scandaleux. Pour satisfaire son temperament elle eut I'im-
pudence d'^riger k sa cour ane charge de cour avec un logement, des appointe-
mens, des honneurs, des prerogatives, et surtout des fonctions determin^es ; et
de toutes les charges cette charge ilit le plus scrupuleusement remplie ; une
courte absence, une maladie passag^re de celui qui I'occupoit, suffisoient

quelquefois pour le fture remplacer Douze favoris en titre se sont

succed^s dans cette place devenue la premiere de I'^tat." He afterwards
adds : " C'est un trait bicn remarquable du caract^e de Catharine, qu'aucun
de ses favoris n'encourut sa haine ou sa vengeance, cependant plusieurs I'offen-
sdrent, et ce ne fut toujours elle qui les quitta."

§ I.] RU88IA TILL 1788. 123

these taken together occupied, within a few yean, the whole
period of the empress's reign. A very brief glance at the time
of the Orloflb' removal from the office of court favourites will be
sufficient for the illustration of this remark. In 177^9 P&nin, in
order to set some bounds to the omnipotence of Orloflfs rule, in
his absence recommended a young officer of the ^ards, named
Alexander Wasiltschikow, to the favour of the empress, and the
new favourite immediately entered into occupation of the apart-
ments in the palace belonging to his office. He continued to -
enjoy Catharine's favour for two years, at the end of which Gre-
gory Orloff returned, and by his importunity and insolence re-
gained his former place. In 177^ he was driven from his po-
sition a second time by the bold and colossal Potemkin, the only
one perhaps of all those who enjoyed the favour of the empress
who felt a true passion, and wooed her affections on this ground
alone and not from ambition ; Gregory Orloff however succeeded
for a time in maintaining his supremacy.

Gregory Potemkin not only drove the insignificant Wasilt-
schikow from the fevour of the empress, but he became a second
Orloff, because he made himself master of the whole power of the
state, and subjected the empress herself to his brutal dominion.
On the one hand he flattered her in the most magnificent man-
ner, such as had only been previously heard of in eastern coun-
tries and in remote times ; whilst upon the other, he occasionally
d^raded her. This magnificent courtier, who has been praised
by such distinguished nobles as the Londonderrys and S^gurs,
was the richest and at the same time the most avaricious man
in the empire ; he obtained almost everything upon credit and
never paid, so that his custom was in fact a misfortune, because
none dare refuse to furnish his demands, although every one of
those who were favoured by them was constantly in danger of
being ruined by their extent. He unhesitatingly sacrificed the
treasures of the country and thousands of men in order to gain
whole provinces (for example, the Crimea and Poland) for the
empress, who merely cared for the result and the glory; he
caused cities to be built, as if they had been the decorations of
a theatre, merely to furnish a new spectacle to the empress's
eyes, and which indeed again disappeared from the earth when
they had served for the temporary gratification and triumph of
Potemkin and his sovereign. Those who are desirous of fol-
lowing out these topics, and learning in detail the life and acts

124 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

of Potemkin^ will find abundant materials in Herr von Archen-
holz's Journal^ as well as in a rhapsody* compiled in the year
1792 ; we shall limit ourselves strictly to the afiairs of the state.

Potemkin's rule commenced at the very time in which the
peace of Cudschuck Cainardschi was concluded (July 1774) ; by
the terms of this treaty the Russians secured the right of the
free navigation of the Black Sea and of the passage of the Dar-
danelles^ and not merely severed the tract of land lying between
the Bog and the Dniester from. Turkey and united it to Russia,
but also withdrew the Crimea from the Turks and declared it to
be an independent province. This peace was concluded because
Russia was engaged in disputes with Poland and occupied with
the rebellion of PugatschefF; but these afiairs were no sooner
concluded^ than Potemkin immediately violated every condition
of the treaty concluded at Cudschuck Cainardschi, well-persuaded
that no one would dare to make any report of his conduct to the
empress, and that she would afterwards approve of everything
he might do. Dowlet Oherai, who was elected khan by the
Tatars, now made independent, still remained much more fit-
vourably disposed to the Turks than to the Russians ; the latter
therefore distributed large sums of money among those who were
opposed to the khan, sent bodies of Russian Tatars to intermix
with their independent neighbours, excited disturbances, and
finally supported those who took up arms against the khan by
the aid of Russian troops. A vain Tatar magnate, who had
formerly remained for some time in Petersburg on the afiairs of
his nation, was won over by Potemkin, and suffered himself to
be employed as an instrument for the accompHshment of Russian
plans. Under pretence of an armed mediation, a Russian army
took the field against Dowlet Gherai, occupied a part of the
Crimea, and seemed disposed to make the khan a prisoner and to
seize upon the whole province ; great care however was taken
not to take one step in advance which perhaps it might after-

• Archenholz's ' Minerva ' for the years 1797, 1798, and 1799, contains the
anecdotes to which we refer ; the rhapsody is entitled ' Anekdoten zur Lebens-
geschichte des Ritters und ReichsHlrsten Potemkin. Nebst einer kurzen
Beschreibung der ehemaligen Krimm, anitzo Taurien genannt, Kartaliniens
Kachem, Archasien und Caban, dessgieichen der Reise der Kaiserin Katharina
der Zweiten nach der Krimm. Nebst einem Anhang iiber tatarische-scythische
Alterthiimer, in Bemerkungen auf einer Reise von den Professoren Gmelin und
Pallas. Freistadt am Rhein (Strassburg). Im vierten Jahre der Freiheit 1792 ;
282. $ 8.'

§ I.] RUSSIA TILL 1788. 125

wards have been necessary to recall. The Russians first renoanced
all idea of conquering the whole country^ and then followed pre-
cisely the same course towards the khan and the pretender^ who
had applied for Russian aid, as the English are accustomed to
do towards the Indian princes when they wish to despoil them
of their territories. The Russians contemplated with pleasure
Dowlet Gherai taking refuge with the Turks in April 177^^ cmd
the election of Sahim Gherai^ who was a mere creature of Russia,
in his stead, because it was easily foreseen that the majority of the
Tatars would oppose the new khan, and thus furnish them with
another pretence for a renewal of hostilities.

On this occasion the Turks felt themselves doubly offended,
because the Russians first violated the peace by interfering with
the independence of the Tatars and promoting the election of
their own creature to the dignity of khan, and secondly, by in-
creasing their army in the neighbourhood of the Crimea, and
erecting a new fortress between Kertsch and Jenikale. The new
khan, who was soon threatened by his own subjects and the
Turks, lent a willing ear to the allurements of Potemkin, and fell
a sacrifice to his own ambition, Russian cabals, and Potemkin's
treachery* In the year 1 77fi he sent six of his magnates (Mirzas)
to Petersburg to entreat the assistance of Russia, and the honour
and distinction of a formal reception at the Russian court was
given to the embassy. The ambassadors were received with pe-
culiar splendour and overloaded with singular marks of honour
and respect. According to oriental custom, they were presented
with caftans, whose value amounted to a very considerable sum ;
and the empress, who, notwithstanding her degraded moral con-
dition, always appeared clever, dignified and magnificent in
public, played her part in a most masterly manner on the recep-
tion of the Tatar ambassadors, as well as on every other similar
occasion* A war with the Porte appeared at that time unavoid-
able, and Romanzow received commands to collect a considerable
JEumy on the Dnieper, whilst Repnin in Constantinople was en-
deavouring to deceive the sultan, and Potemkin betrayed the
unfortunate Sahim Gherai.

At this time Potemkin had ceased to be the honoured personal
favourite of the empress ; but he was indispensable to her in con-
sequence of those wonderful and colossal imdertakings which
procured her the name of great, and by the fear with which
he inspired all her enemies he secured to her the firm possession

126 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIBST DIVISION. [CH. II.

of the throne, which she withheld from her son Paul. The good-
natured Sawadowsky had become the successor of Potemkin
and his predecessors in the apartments of the royal palace as
early as November 1776, and been created a major-general; as
soon however as he fell under Potemkin^s suspicion, the latter
authoritatively insisted upon his dismissal. Sawadowsky availed
himself of his opportunities to direct the empress's attention to
Potemkin's indescribable haughtiness and pride^ and was an
eager favourer of the Orlofis and field-marshal Romanzow. For
this reason Potemkin succeeded in obtaining leave of absence for
the favourite in July 1777? in order to provide a substitute during
his temporary retirement who should eventually displace him.
Potemkin had long before selected a certain major Sorizsch for
his adjutant, who was politically insignificant, but very attractive
in his hussar uniform, with a view to present him to the empress.
Sawadowsky had no sooner left the palace than he carried his
design into effect, and the empress immediately made him a
colonel-adjutant-general and her companion. At the expiration
of nine months he too fell under Potemkin's displeasure and was
obliged to retire, for the empress was completely under the con-
trol of her minister. Sorizsch was succeeded by Korsakow, who
in his turn was indignant at Potemkin's unlimited haughtiness,
pride and avarice, but attempted in vain to open the eyes of the
empress ; he was obliged to yield to the influence of the brutal
but indispensable tyrant after he had enjoyed the favour of the
empress for fifteen months.

Potemkin became at that time doubly indispensable, because
there was only one man to whom all means were right and good
which led to the attainment of his design, who could entertain
and interest the empress in his gigantic projects and fulfil the
dreams of the restoration of a Byzantine empire. The circum-
stances of the year 1778 were peculiarly favourable to the accom-
plishment of Potemkin's plans, because war between France and
England had broken out in the spring, and both powers were so
fully occupied in the west that they had no leisure to attend to
the concerns of the east. Potemkin therefore sent an army com-
manded by Suwarrow against the Tatars of Cuban and Bud-
schiack, whilst other Russians penetrated into the Crimea and
were guilty of the most cruel devastations. This led to the
seizure of some Russian ships in the straits of the Dardanelles
on the part of the sultan, who was however unable to commence

§1.] RUSSIA TILL 1788. 127

a war without the aid and cooperation of France. France was
unwilling to break up her good understanding with Russia. The
French therefore began to mediate at a time at which no media-
tion should properly speaking have been offered, and the sultan
was obliged to conform to their wishes. The result of this me-
diation was, that the Russian ships were restored by the Turks,
and the grand sultan formally recognized Sahim Gherai, who
had been appointed khan under Russian influence, as the right-
ful ruler of the Crimea.

From this time forward Potemkin, Voltaire, and all those cour-
tiers who merely wished to give pleasure, entertained the empress
with the plan of first establishing a half Greek empire, and
erecting a new capital on the Black Sea. Sahim Gherai was
first alienated from his nationality and his religion because he
allowed himself to be weaned from his domestic habits by the
enchantment of European splendour, European comforts, by
French fashions and French cookery. He prized the slavish title
of a lieutenant-colonel in the guards of a foreign empress as more
honourable than that of prince of a nation to which the Russian
czars for many years had been vassals, and renounced the na-
tional costume of his people in order to glitter in a Russian uni-
fonn and wear the decorations of the order of St. Anne. Potem-
kin contrived every month to alienate him more and more from
his people, and so availed himself of the weakness of the khan as
completely to deceive him. In order to flatter bis vanity, he sent
Wasilitschy and Constantinow to his court, whom he dignified
with the title of ambassadors plenipotentiary, and who contrived
to mystify and deceive him in the same way as the agents of the
English East India Company are accustomed to do the Indian
rajahs. These Russian agents, by holding out to the khan pro-
spects of repose, enjoyment and splendour, and relief from the
troubles and hostilities by which he was harassed by the Tatars,
succeeded in prevailing upon him voluntarily to resign his kha^
nate, and thus furnish the Russians with a pretence for occupy-
ing the country.

This miserable man was shamefully deceived by splendid pro-
mises of every description, and laid down his khanate, from which
he derived a revenue of three to four millions of roubles, in order,
as he thought, to be able to revel in peaceful luxuries in the en-
joyment of some hundred thousand roubles, which Potemkin
was to pay him as the newly-appointed Russian governor-general

128 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

of Tauria, as the country was now to be called. Potemkin was
too much accustomed to receive and not to give^ and to contract
debts without thinking of paying them^ to give himself much
concern respecting the payment of the promised salary, although
the empress was led to believe that the yearly sum always charged
to her was in reality regularly paid to the khan. The shame«
lessness of the political sophists^ whom usually no one dares to
contradict, was as great on this occasion as it is accustomed to
be on every other ; it fully equalled the audacity of the mani*
festos respecting the partition of Poland and that of the state-
papers of a Oenz and Talleyrand. In the Russian manifestos
published in April 1783, it was made as clear as the sun to the
Tatars, that the empress and Potemkin were really proposing to
confer upon them the most signal benefits. It was stated that
the Tatars, as Russian subjects, were in future to be delivered
from all the evils of those internal disputes, and by the incorpo-
ration of the Crimea, Cuban, and the Eastern Nogay announced
in their manifestos, an end was to be put to those oppressions
from which they had hitherto suffered, sometimes from the Turks
and sometimes firom the Russians. The correspondence between
the promises and declarations of these rhetoricians and sophists,
and the subsequent reality, may be learned from all the works
of recent travellers who have visited these districts, and give ac-
counts of the Crimea and the Tatars at the present day. This
numerous, free and rich race of people, clothed in silks and of
noble appearance, has now wholly disappeared, and sunk down
to a crowd of starving beggars; its splendid and magnificent
tented cities are now become gipsy encampments, and its houses
and palaces built of stone now exhibit mere masses of ruins and
decay.

These manifestos indeed, as is usually the case, were not in-
tended for those to whom they were addressed, but merely to
conceal the cruelties and bloodshed with which they were accom-
panied in a vapour and cloud of words from the eyes of those
who were at a distance. The Tatars made an effort to defend
their liberties, and their magnates made no secret of their dis-
satisfaction ; Potemkin therefore, in his own clever manner, had
recourse to one of those heroic means which usually find defend-
ers enough among ourselves when they are applied for the sup-
port of the true faith and autocratic government, and are only
abused and execrated in the hands of Danton and Robespierre.

§ lO RUSSIA TILL 1788. 129

He proposed by a single massacre summarily to aimihilate the
malcontents and to awe the rest into submission by the dread of
a similar fate. Posorowsky received especial orders to make
himself master of the malcontents^ their ftmilies and adherents^
and to cause the whole to be put to the sword ; he however pos-
sessed moral courage enough to decline the business of an exe-
cutioner. Potemkin's cousin did not prove so scrupulous. Ac-
cording to the accounts^ whose unanimous testimony we are
obliged to foUow^ even when it appears to us incredible, Paul
Potemkin caused above 30,000 Tatars of every age and sex to be
massacred in cold blood, and in this way not only procured for
his cousin the easily-won title of the Taurian, but also the place
of grand-admiral of the Black Sea and governor-general of the
new province of Tauria.

The massacre in Tauria took place in April 1783, and the
Turks were unable to render any assistance to the Tatars without
foreign support. Among the European powers however, England
was at that time fully occupied with the disturbances which in
the following year brought Pitt to the helm of affairs ; France
was glad to be able to see an end to the American war; Joseph
II. was bound by the treaty of Tscherskoeselo; Frederick II.
hoped to become master of Thorn and Danzig, if Russia was
well-disposed towards him, and Oustavus III. of Sweden was
the only monarch who could have rendered any aid. In the
veiy 9aine year however Gustavus suffered himself to be in-
duced to go to Friedrichshamm, where he sold himself to the
empress ; nothing therefore was now left to the Turks but to
yield to their destiny. The grand sultan did what had been done
by the king of Poland a few years before ; by his consent he
changed that into a righteous and legal possession which being
seized in the middle of peace was previously a robbery. The
whole territoiy of the Tatars, the Crimea, the island of Taman
and a great part of Cuban were ceded to Russia, and a treaty of
commerce was forced upon the Turks, by virtue of which the
Russian consuls in the various ports of Turkey were erected into
a power wholly independent of the government of the country.
This treaty of commerce had been drawn up by Panin before he
had been obliged to yield to the superior influence of Potemkin
and withdrawn from public afiairs, and was now concluded on the
10th of June 1783 : of the eighty articles which it contains, we
shall only specify two, in order to show that Turkey at that time

VOL. VI. K

130 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH.H.

stood in almost the same relation to Russia which the Indian
powers at the present time do to England. By virtue of this
treaty the Turks were obliged to submit to the decision of all
mixed civil cases in which a Russian and a Turk formed the re-
spective parties, and which belonged to the local tribunals, not
by the higher authorities, not by a court of arbitration, but by
the Russian consul ; and in all pecuniary transactions the claims
of a Russian against a Turk were urged with much greater strict-
ness than in those cases in which the Turk was the claimant and
the Russian the debtor.

By means of this treaty and the great extension thus given to
the Russian empire, Potemkin became in the world, which regards
only externals, a great and admii^d statesman ) and he was so
indispensable to all the plans of the empress, that she not only
suffered his own brutality of conduct, his total neglect of all his
pecuniary obligations, his tyranny over all classes, and his im-
perial expenditure and magnificence, but allowed him to enrich
himself to such an extent, that when he died eight years after-
wards he lefl behind him 40,000,000 of roubles. Count S^;ur,
who was first a French courtier, then a North American re-
publican and a Cincinnatus of the new republic, then again a
flatterer and companion of Potemkin and his empress, next a
high dignitary of the court of Napoleon's military despotism, and
finally celebrated for his eloquence and writings full of a courtly
spirit and distinguished elegance of style, — ^therefore a man who
was at his ease in every saddle, — presents us it is true with only
a courtly description of Potemkin, but one in which the truth
everywhere peeps through. About a year after the change of
the country of the Tatars of the Black Sea into the high-sounding
names of Tauria and Caucasia (17B4), 86gar went to Petersbui^,
and found Potemkin, of whom he gives the description which
will be found in the note*, thinking of new gigantic undertakings.

* From the innumerable passages in which this light-minded courtier of the
order of Cincinnatus describes Potemkin, we shall merely select the following :
" Potemkin joignait le don d'une heureuse m^moire i celui d'un esprit vif,
naturel, prompt et mobile; mais en m^me terns le sort lui avoit donneun ca-
ractdre indolent et enclin au repos. Ennemi de tout gdne et cependant insa-
tiable de volupt^, de pouvoir et d'opulence, voulant jouir de tous lea genres de
gloire^ la fortune le fatiguait en I'entratnant, elle contrariait sa paresse, et
pourtant jamais elle n'allait aussi vite et aussi loin que ses vagues et impatiens
d^sirs le demandaient ; on pouvait rendre un tel homme riche et puissant^
mais il ^toit impossible d'en faire un homme heureux. Son coeur ^toit bon
(of such good people we hear every day, who are more injurious to their fellow-
creatures than all the wicked), son esprit caustique k la fois magnifique et

§ I.] BU8IIA TILL 1788. 131

He projected Aaiatio oonqueBts, and aimed at founding a new
UuBso*Qrecian capital in Europe. With reference to the former^
he was desirous of subduing the districts of Cachetia, Cartalinia
and Imiretta in the same manner as he had done Nogay^ and
transpknted 60,000 Saporogian Tatars into the countries for<>
merly occupied by the free Tatars, who had been put to the sword.
He further sacrificed large sums of money and multitudes of men
in a useless war with Persia, and entered into boastful connex-
ions with China, which led to nothing.

The founding of a new Russo*Orecian capital was a magni-
ficent and well-planned piece of flattery for the empress, but for
which she was unhappily obliged to pay too dear. Catharine
indulged with Voltaire in those visionary schemes of a Utopian
Greece, of a civilization of which she and not the people was
to be the source, of an enlightenment, industry and trade to be
carried into these conquered deserts by ukases and courtiers;
Potemkin acted according to this fancy. He first erected a city
with buildings of every description, and then sought for inhabit-
ants, or forcibly drove them for a time from all quarters, when
he wished to make a court-spectacle of this theatrical city and
to enchant the empress. It was of no consequence to him that
his city fell to pieces and its inhabitants disappeared as soon as
he turned away his eyes. The new city was called Cherson, a
name long since obscured by that of Odessa; the empress
granted 18,000,000 of roubles, the most of which however Po-
temkin diverted to his own private use. The situation of the
city was badly chosen, and yet this shadow of a capital was for
a length of time charmed into existence by oeception, pro-
mises, and innumerable arts, combined with the use of open
violence ; and the deserts of which this city was to be the capital
were erected into a province, to which Potemkin in his flattery
gave the name of Catharine? 9 Glory (Slawa Ekatharina). An<-
other province, somewhat Airther to the north, near the cele-
brated falls of the Coidack, was also honoured with the name of
the empress and called Ekatharinoslaw.

Potemkin at that time availed himself of the services of ge-
neral Suwarrow in the country of the Nogaic Tatars and in
Cuban, a man who from that distant period till our own cen-

svare. II prodigusit des bienfaito et payait rarement tea dettes. Le monde
I'ennuvait ; il y semblait d^plac^> et se plaisait n^aomoiDB k tenir une esp^ de
cour, &c. &c.

k2

132 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [cfi. II.

tuiy had the misfortune to be continually employed as the
instrument of a murdering military despotism, without having
subjected himself to any gross imputations. In Poland he
executed three times those commands of annihilation which
were issued from Petersburg. He destroyed the Turks and sa-
crificed the Russians by thousands at the will of Potemkin, who
now employed his services against the Tatars, as he did at a
later period against the Turks. He subsequently shared Paul's
hatred against the French and every thought of civil freedom,
and performed the same heroic deeds for his pleasure which he
had previously done at the bidding of Potemkin. Though he
was a man of various knowledge and had made himself master
of all the arts of life as practised in the highest society, he as-
sumed the character of an original, and delighted to play the
part of an uncultivated Russian in order to delight his soldiers.
He was undoubtedly one of the greatest generals of modem
times, but wholly destitute of compassion, for he sacrificed thou-
sands without hesitation in order to secure a victory or storm a
fortress, when either the one or the other was calculated to pro-
duce a splendid effect even for the moment. He not only flattered
the empress, but even the common soldiers and their supersti-
tions. At court he assumed the character of a sort of court-fool,
and acted often as if he were mad, merely in order to be able to
carry out some surprising piece of flattery. In the company of the
common soldiers he played the character of the semi-barbarous
Russian, lived in the same manner as themselves, submitted to
every privation which they might be called upon to endure, and
knelt and prd^ed before every wayside image, often when the
roads were deep with mud.

Potemkin on the one hand did homage to the empress as if
she were a goddess, to whom he became more and more indis-
pensable, and on the other he suffered himself to treat her with
the greatest familiarity and intolerable rudeness, so that he went
firom his own apartments into hers in his dressing-gown and
slippers, with his stockings hanging down and his legs bare.
He went so far as to extort from those who enjoyed the empress's
favour, a part of the money which they received from her, and
formally allowed the poor Sahim Oherai to starve. He never
paid him the yearly pension of 100,000 roubles which was ap-
propriated for him, and yearly debited to the empress's account,
and even the displeasure of Catharine could not induce him to

§ I.] RUSSIA TILL 1788, 133

bestow upon this Russian prot^e the simplest means of life.
At the time in which plays and sentimentality were the fashion
in Germany, the empress in her old age indulged in a fit of
romantic love for the insipid and spiritless Lanskoy. This turn
in her affections was very agreeable to Potemkin, because Lan«
skoy completely occupied himself with this love affair, which the
empress reserved for him firom all the relations in which she
had indulged with his predecessors. He neither took up the
cause of the poor and destitute khan, nor yielded to the allure-
ments of the king of Prussia, of the emperor Joseph II., or the
English, when they were desirous of engaging him in affairs of
state. Potemkin freely permitted the empress to indulge her
visionary love for the wonderfully beautiful and youthfid face
which captivated her affections, and did not grudge her the en-
joyment of one romantic passion after the manner of Werther
and Siegwart, from the year 1780 till July 1784, among the many
gross and degrading scenes of her life. Catharine's love for
Lanskoy had been romantic in his life, and her sorrow at his
death was not less extravagant; but notwithstanding all this
ideality, she had been also careful to show him substantial
proofs of her affection at the cost of the country. She bestowed
upon him not only all possible titles, orders and decorations,
diamonds, plate and collections of every kind, but he left behind
him in cash a property of 7,000,000 of roubles.

The fantastic mourning for Lanskoy was no sooner evaporated
than the empress allowed Potemkin, who presented candidates
for every oflSce, to supply her with a substitute for her departed
lover. In order to exclude all other pretenders, Potemkin on
every such occasion was prepared to fill the vacancy, and with
this view he had for some considerable time made lieutenant
Yermoloff one of his adjutants, and accordingly in 1785 he en-
tered into occupation of the apartments in the palace appro-
priated to the declared favourite of the empress. Catharine's
mind was susceptible of noble, humane and honourable feelings,
and had a love of greatness, whether in good or evil, and Yer-
moloff ventured to pursue a course on which Lanskoy would
never have thought; he directed her attention to the tyranny of
Potemkin, and gave her some hints respecting his behaviour
towards Sahim Gherai. The empress expressed her displeasure
without naming the person who had made her acquainted
with the unhappy fate of the khan ; Potemkin however easily

134 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION* [CH. II.

guessed that no other man in the empire would dare to speak
of him to the empress except Yermoloff. He therefore threaten-
ingly replied, " That must have been said by the fFkUe JUloor/^
as he was accustomed to call Termoloff^ on account of his fidr
countenance and flat nose. Catharine did not hesitate severely
to reproach Potemkin for his harsh and unjust conduct towards
the khan^ and she even hesitated for some months between her
favourite and this son of the Titans^ whom she regarded as her
protector and the creator of her glory and her greatness. At
the end of the month of June 1786 a new scene occurred^ by
which the empress was compelled to declare either for the one
or the other. Yermoloff had made a new attempt to alienate
the empress from Potemkin^ and the latter therefore haughtily
demanded that she must decide for the one or the other, for
either Yermoloff or he must retire from her service ; Catharine
felt herself constrained to adhere to Potemkin, and Yermoloff
went upon his travels. During the course of the year he had
been loaded with riches^ and on his departure he was Airnished
with 100^000 roubles and imperial recommendations to the
Russian ambassadors at all the European courts. On the very
day after his departure, Momonow, another adjutant of Potem-
kin, occupied his place.

About this period Potemkin repeatedly travelled from Peters-
burg to Tauria and back with all the expedition of a courier,
whilst he was engaged in the building of Cherson, in order to
prepare a splendid triumph for the empress. The neglected
Sahim Oherai hastened thither to meet him and make him ac-
quainted with the urgency of his wantS5 but Potemkin instead of
rendering him any assistance banished him to Kaluga, where he
fell into a state of the deepest poverty. He then conceived that he
might find some relief from his felloW'believers and fled to Tur-
key, but the sultan caused him to be arrested as a traitor and
renegade at Cboczim, to be conveyed to Rhodes and there bow-
stringed (1787)« The plan contemplated by Potemkin and the
empress, or rather their castle in the air, was to raise the grand-
duke Constantine, second grandson of the empress, to the dig-
nity of emperor of Byzantium, at the expense of the Turks, and
at the same time to incorporate the kingdom of Poland with
Russia. The new city of Cherson was no sooner ready for this
grand theatrical representation, than the empress was to travel
thither to receive the homage of her new subjects, and to deceive

§ I.] RUSSIA TILL 1788* 135

the world by an ostentatious display of magnificence and pomp.
Joseph II. iraa invited to meet the empress in Cherson^ in
order to consult and agree with her upon a partition of the
Turkish empire ; but Constantine himself was in the first in*
stance left at home. The luxury and extravagance exhibited by
Potemkin during the empress's journey^ and the fStes prepared
fbr her reception and entertainment at Cher8on> were worthy of
the heaven-storming characters of these two clever rulers, Po-
temkin and the empress, and serve to call to recollection the ex-
travagance of the Abassides and the grandsons of Timour, with
this difference, that civilization and the arts were strangers to
the people in the kingdom of the khalifs and in that of the Great
Mogul. There never however perhaps occurred in monarchical
Europe, where such things are not rare, such a gross abuse of
the property, money and well-being of the people, and such
contempt shown to public opinion by a contemptible comedy, as
on this occasion by the journey of ttie empress to Cherson. A
single trait will serve to show how those were treated on the
journey who did not belong to the favouired persons of the court.
The journey was commenced when the intensity of the frost
aecured good roads for the sledges, in which the cortege was con-
veyed, and continued for a whole week, with the thermometer at
17^ of cold (Reaumur) (more than 4^ below zero Fahrenheit).
The numerous attendants of the court were indeed protected
against the severity of the cold and every inconvenience by close
and warmed sledges ; but the others were exposed to dreadful
cold. It may be best seen from Slur's description how justly
Potemkin and Catharine had calculated the influence of the
whole aflair in a political, diplomatic and monarchical point of
view, and how ridiculous all vulgar ideas and considerations are
in the eyes of those circles for whose pleasure such scenes are
daily got up and exhibited. Segur also enumerates the various
persons who on this occasion played the leading characters in
the comedy along with the empress*.

* The description of this journey occupies the fiflh part of the second vo-
lume and some pages in the commencement of the third volume of S^r's
'M^moires' ; he begins as follows : " Le 18 Janvier 1787» nous nous mimes en
route, rimp^ratrice fit monter dans sa voiture mademoiselle Protasoff et le
comte Momonoif, qui ne la quittaient jamais, le comte de Cobentzel, le grand
^uyer Narischkin et le grand chambellan Scbouwaloff. Dans le seconde carosse
on pla9a Fitz-Herbert et moi avec les comtes Tchemicheff et d'Anhalt. Le
cort^ £toit compost de quatorze voitures, de cent vingt-quatre traineaux et
de quarante suppUmentaires. Cinq cent soixante chevaux nous attendaient k
chaque poste."

136 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

The journey was commenced in January 1787) and continued
night and day. Potemkin had made arrangements for facili-
tating the journey by night, by causing great piles of wood to
be erected at every fifty perches, which were kindled at night-
fall, and whose flames imparted to the whole district almost the
brightness of day. On the sixth day the cortege reached Smo-
lensko, and fourteen days afterwards Kiew, where the Polish
magnates, who at that time made a trade of their nation, their
honour and their friendship, were assembled to offer their ho-
mage to the empress and join in the revelry of her court*, a
course of which they repented when it was too late. Potem-
kin himself had preceded the procession in order to arrange
the side-scenes of the theatre which he meant to erect from
Petersburg to Cherson. He caused wooden houses, pretended
villages and towns to be built, peasants to be dressed, an appa-
rent prosperity to be displayed, and whole flocks and herds to
be driven to the sides of the road in order to delight the eyes of
the empress in her hasty transit. He ordered the rocks in the
Dnieper to be sprung, in order that the empress might descend
the stream in barges as conveniently as she had travelled thither
in the chamber of her sledge. At the beginning of May the
whole party embarked on the river in fifteen galleys at Kre-
mentschuck, and on the following day Stanislaus of Poland
presented himself at Kanieff, in order by his insipid and pitiful
character to serve as a foil to the monarchical splendour of a
woman. He accepted an alms of 100,000 roubles for the ex-
penses of his journey, was very graciously received by Potemkin,
treated with coldness and indifference by the empress, and as if
his royal Polish income was simply a Russian pension, be^ed
for an augmentation. He was not ashamed to acknowledge to
all the courts whose ambassadors accompanied the empress, that
he regarded his kingdom as a Russian province, for he besought
the empress to grant the succession in the kingdom to his ne-
phew, and to his nation the free navigation of the Dnieper. As
is customary in such things, there was no lack of promises; but
none of his petitions were really granted, for it was impossible
either to value or respect him, and in his situation he was inca-
pable of inspiring fear. He was however very welcome in the
empress's barge as a courtier, played his character admirably at

* There were found Sapieha and Labomiraky^ the Potockys, Branitzkys,
and other creatures of the Russian court.

§ 1.] RUSSIA TILL 1788. 137

the imperial banquets, so much lauded in all the newspapers
of Europe, and at last he gave a very splendid display of
fireworks.

The prince de Ligne, the most celebrated courtier and wit
among the illustrious personages of Europe, and himself a petty
dynast, who like madame de Stael always deserved to shine as
a star of the first magnitude in the circles of the high aristo-
cracy, brought an account of the empresses route to the emperor
Joseph, who anticipated her arrival in Cherson. He travelled
to meet her as far as Caidack, and soon perceived that she was
shamefully deceived and betrayed by the appearance of pros-
perity, civilization and population, and that as soon as she had
passed through, all would again become empty and deserted.
The same plan which had been pursued with the villages, flocks
and men by the way, was pursued also with the new buildings
in which die distinguished travellers passed their nights, and
with the houses and shops in Cherson. It will not be regarded
as incredible that 7jOOO,000 of roubles were expended on the
journey, when it is known that the throne itself, which was
erected for the empress in what was called the admiralty at
Cherson, cost 14,000 roubles.

The emperor Joseph, who had no suspicion of the intrigues
which were at that time being forged against him in Belgium,
although he formed a proper estimate of the characters of the
empress and Potemkin, siuSered himself to be drawn into an
approval of her plans respecting the empire of the Turks and
the war which was to be commenced. He accompanied the
empress to Moscow. At this time count Herzberg, who was
still at the head of the Prussian ministry, was anxiously watch-
ing the ambitious projects of Joseph and the empress, and availed
himself of the intimate connexion into which England had en-
tered with the new king at the time of the Prussian expedition
to Holland. Up till the time of the Reichenbach congress, both
coiurts endeavoured to make use of Sweden, Poland and Belgium
to involve Russia and Austria in difficulties, without at the same
time directly declaring themselves in favour of the Turks.

138 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

§11.
SWEDEN AND BUASIA TILI. THE PEACE OF WXRSLA.

In reference to the empress of Russia, Gustavus III. of Sweden
played no very honourable character ; he condescended to accept
her presents^ and received her acts of politeness with gratitude^
and afterwards wished to play the hero and measure his strength
with hers. He had accepted presents in money from her hands
in Friedrichshamm, in order to enable him to make his osten*
tatious journey, and carried with him recommendations to the
Russian minister in Naples, who entertained him at the em-
press's expense, and took upon himself all the cost of his sojourn
in Naples. How impolitic it was for a man who wished to
appear a knightly king, like Gustavus, and how unworthy of
his character to accept of such favours from Russia and her
ministers, may be best learned from subsequent events. The
same Rasumowsky who entertained and paid his expenses in
Naples, a very few years afterwards treated him with the most
brutal insolence in his own capital, and entered into conspiracies
with the Swedish nobles against his throne and dignity. Since
the conclusion of the last diet, the king moreover had rendered
some new services to Sweden, as appears from the accounts fur*
nished by him recorded in Schlozer^s ^Political Notices'*; but
he had nevertheless sunk in public estimation in consequence of
his frivolous behaviour. If we ascribe ever so much of the
reproaches thrown upon the king to intrigues and to the calum-
nies of that portion of the high nobility which was humbled in
177^9 still his extravagance on his journey and immediately
after his return in fStes and balls, operas and plays, jousting and
ostentation with the arts and artists, are proofs enough that he
had gained no better or higher views, and that the produce of
his hateful brandy monopoly would no longer suffice to meet
those deficiencies which his waste and extravagance had caused
in the finances of the kingdom.

In order to meet the embarrassments in the finances, a diet
was to be summoned, which was called for May 1786; but the
meeting was expressly annomnced in the most remote provinces
before anything was made known on the subject in Stockholm.
The empress of Russia suspected the object of the diet; she

* Schlozer's Staatsanzeigen, 12r band, 458. heft, 8. 92 — 111.

§ II.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WBBELA. 139

was taken by surprise, put off her journey to Cherson, remained
in the neighbourhood^ and employed every possible means by
her ministers to counteract the designs of the king. The Rus-
sian Markow held assemblies of malcontents in his house; and
relying on him, and supported by him in every way, Axel Fer-
sen, the whole family of Brahe and their adherents, offered
boldly to bid defiance to the king in the assembly of the diet.
Of four proposals which the king submitted to the diet> one
alone was accepted. The king and the nobles now assumed a
position of mutual hostility, he was consequently deeply indig-
nant ; and in the speech with which he closed and dissolved the
meeting on the 23rd of June 17^6, he gave it clearly to be un-
derstood that he would not soon summon another, and let fall
some expressions indicative of his threatening displeasure*.
Immediately afterwards he entered into closer relations with
England and Prussia, according to their advice resolved to
enter into an offensive alliance with them before the Turks had
commenced the war, and lent a willing ear to the agents of
England and Prussia, who urged him to take advantage of the
favourable opportunity in order to avenge Sweden on Russia.
The king therefore no sooner saw that the outbreak of the war
between the Russians and the Turks was approaching, than he
also resolved to make an attack upon the former, as soon as the
main force of Russia was occupied in the south. In addition to
the general reasons assigned in the note in the words of Amdt,
ha had others personal to himself which led him to wish for a
war with Russiaf*

There was a certain count Sprengporten, whom however we
must be careful not to confound with him of whose services
Oustavus so happily availed himself in the revolution of 177^9
but who had also many connexions in Finland. The count had

• The words threatening displeasure refer to the following rhetorical ex-
preBsioiiB : — Contemporaries qften nUitake goodness for weakness, andfirmmsi
for ambitiim ; but posterity alone is the tribunal qf kings.

+ Arndt, Schwedische Geschichten unter Gustav dem Dritten u, s. w.
Seite 106. But the ambition to play a warlike character, again to revive the
name of Wasa amongst foreigners, hope in the assistance of other powers,
who looked with envy at Catharine's deceitful plans of conqnest, nay perhaps
actual promises from these powers, therefore the favour of circumstances, and
the desire, worthy of a king of Sweden, of putting an end to his dependence,
of cutting off the secret web of correspondence with his subjects, and of re-
storing the eastern frontiers of his native country, were sufficient inducements
to itkiB war, and with a man of Gustavus's character it must be unnecessary to
seek for oti^ers.

140 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

been at first favoured by the king, afterwards disagreed with
him and entered into the Dutch, and later still into the Russian
service. Sprengporten was employed as a tool by Russia, in
order to wrest the province of Finland from Gustavus. He
therefore made numerous journeys into the provinces, to make
acquaintances and to inform himself of the feelings and opinions
of the people ; to work upon the nobles, and to prepare conspi*
racies ; in short, he had the same description of Russian afiairs
secretly to manage in Finland in which Markow openly engaged
in Stockholm. When Gustavus began to make serious prepara*
tions for war in July 1737; the empress recalled Markow, and sent
the same Rasumowsky who had rendered the king so many ser*
vices in Naples, in order to form conspiracies against him, and to
persecute him in his own capitaL Rasumowsky appealed to the
Swedish army to resist their king, and most rudely called Gus-
tavus to account in consequence of his warlike preparations, sup-
porting himself upon that article of the constitution which was
adhered to even in 1 772> according to which, the king was not
allowed to commence an offensive war without first consulting
the estates of the kingdom. The king it is true commanded the
ambassador to leave the city, but the latter delayed his departure
on pretences of all descriptions, continually insulted the king,
and drew up the notes which he addressed to him and caused to
be published in the journals in such a style, that they might be
regarded as formal appeals from the king to the people.

Gustavus collected a fleet and an army in Carlscrona with in-
credible rapidity, and assembled from 30,000 to 40,000 men
in Finland. He could not however commence the war unless
some pretext was given by an attack on the part of the Russians,
that he might be able to change an offensive into a defensive war ;
he was therefore placed in a situation of no small perplexity,
because it was clear that the favourable moment had arrived.
The Turks were already hard pressed by the Russians, and
threatened with an attack from the Austrians, who were com-
pelled, in consequence of their agreement with Potemkin, to take
part in the war. Potemkin had drawn together the whole of
the Russian forces on the Black Sea, divided them into three
armies, and proposed to march at the head of the main body
direct upon Constantinople, whilst the two other divisions were
sent to treat the people to the east of the Black Sea and in the
Caucasus in the same manner as he had treated the Tatars.

§ II.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WBBELA. 141

Care was taken to observe the necessary forms, in order to fur-
nish an excuse for the participation of Austria in the war with
the Turks $ and for that purpose it was necessary to stimulate
the Turks to make the first attack, because Austria was only
bound to furnish auxiliaries to the Russians in case of their
being attacked. The Russians immediately endeavoured to ex-
cite internal commotions in Turkey, and in carrying out their
plans showed very little respect to the interests and fate of their
fellow- believers — the Greeks, Bulgarians, Wallachians and Sola-
vonians, who were involved by their emissaries and exposed to
the enmity and revenge of the Turks.

Whilst the empress was in Cherson, Bulgakow, the Russian
ambassador in Constantinople, was summoned to her court, and
received instructions to use all possible means to excite distur-
ances among the European Greeks in Georgia, which was at
that time a Turldsh province, — ^by the consul in Jassy to rouse
the inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia, — ^by his representa-
tive in Alexandria to sow the seeds of discontent in Egypt, and
by the influence of Peter Feoraoi in Smyrna to alienate the minds
of the people in Asia Minor. The Turks, with good reason,
were deeply incensed at this duplicity and intrigue, insisted upon
a distinct declaration of their views on the part of the Russians,
and when they received nothing else for an answer than the
usual diplomatic subterfuge, that the ambassador must first
wait for instructions from Petersbui^, they immediately declared
war $ and without paying any regard to what is called the Euro-
pean law of nations, they arrested the conspiring ambassador,
and sent him to the state-prison of the Seven Towers. Nothing
but the threatening interference of the English minister could
have prevented the Turks from inflicting upon the Russian am-
bassador a speedy vengeance, to show their righteous displeasure
at the conduct of his government. Catharine II. and Joseph II.
had now gained their wishes. The Turks were the first to de-
clare war, and a pretence was thus afforded to the Russians to call
upon the Austrians for that aid which they were bound by
treaty to render in case of an attack on the part of the Turks.

The sultan had unfurled the sacred standard of Mahomet,
proclaimed a holy war, and summoned the faithful to assemble
around the banner of the prophet : he had encouraged the Ta-
tars to insurrection, disarmed the Greeks, and sent a numerous
army and fleet to the Crimea, where he also reckoned upon the

142 FIPTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CU. 11.

Tatars. Had Potemkin been as great a general as he was capable
of devising magnificent plans and of playing the Russian tyrant,
great things would have been accomplished as early as ITBT^ be-
cause all the preparations for the war had been long previously
made, and the declaration of hostilities on the part of the Turks
was designedly called forth by the Russians; but Potemkin merely
wished to play the monarch, and to appropriate all the merit to
himself, simply in consequence of his presence with the army.
This however was by no means satisfactory to Romanzow, for
whom the chief command of the grand army was designed,
which was to commence its operations with the siege of Oc-
sakow. Field-marshal Romanzow was to share the command of
this army with Potemkin ; that is, making allowance for courtly
expressions, he was to serve under him. He therefore made a
pretext of his age and relinquished the supreme command,
which he should never afterwards have resumed. His son re-
mained behind with the army. From this time Potemkin stood
alone at the head of the army, but he never succeeded in de-
ceiving posterity, for no one has ever ascribed to him what was
effected by the officers under his command, — by Repnin, Paul
Potemkin, Suwarrow, Kamenskoi, Galitzin, and Kutusow, all
of whom became more or less renowned in the following wars,
continued till the present century. As early as the campaign of
1787) Potemkin found in Suwarrow precisely such an instrument
as he needed. Suwarrow was bom and bred to be a general,
and whoever promoted his glory and command might reckon
upon him with confidence ; for whether it was the storming of
a fortress or the securing a victory, he sacrificed thousands to
ensure success. He could play the flatterer or the buffoon when
it answered his purpose, and again assume the air of a philo-
sopher, stoic or cynic, as circumstances required. The will of
the empress or her favourite was to him in all cases a more
binding law than the bond of morality, or any feelings of hu-
manity ; as at the end of the century the favour of the unfortu-
nate emperor Paul appeared to him of more value than the
grace of God. He was sent to Kinburn in the year in which the
chief object was apparently the siege of Oczakow, by the main
body under Potemkin, whilst other divisions were despatched
to observe the movements of the Tatars in Cuban. Kinburn
was a small fortress occupied by the Russians, situated upon a
promontory directly opposite to Oczakow, around and in which

§ n.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WERBLA. 143

the Turkish army was stationed^ a division of which the Turkish
fleet in the Black Sea was desirous of landing on the promontory
of Kinburn. The object of Suwarrow's mission was to frustrate
this design, and he executed the task in a masterly manner. At
first he remained perfectly quiet in the fortress, after having
erected a battery at the extremity of the promontory, in order to
be able to cannonade the Turkish ships from the land, at the
same moment in which they might b^ attacked by the Russian
fleet. He allowed the Turks to proceed without molestation till
they had disembarked from 6000 to 7000 men ; he then sent a
few regiments of Cosacks against them, and at the same time
charged them at the head of two battalions of infantry with
fixed bayonets, and caused them all to be put to the sword.
Immediately afterwards he employed his battery against the
Turkish fleet. The prince of Nassau-Siegen, who had the com-
mand of the Russian gun-boats of Nicolajef, attacked the Turk-
ish ships at the very entrance of what is called the Liman, and
within range of the guns of Suwarrow^s battery, to whose well-
directed fire he was indebted for a great share of the advantages
which he gained.

The whole remaining part of the year 17^7 9 as well as the
spring and a great part of the summer of 17^8, elapsed without
anything important having been undertaken ; the whole of the
Russian land-forces were however directed towards the Bog, in
order to push forward with the greatest expedition to the Da-
nube, The Turks had already suffered defeats at sea and in the
Caucasus. The Russian fleet in the Black Sea, which was al-
most wholly commanded by foreigners, nearly completely de-
stroyed the Turkish navy ; generals Tallizyn and Tekely anni-
hilated the Tatars of Cuban, and Tamara reduced Georgia and
Lesgistan. In August Potemkin at length marched against
Ocsakow, but very wisely left the whole conduct of the mili-
tary operations to Suwarrow, the victor of Kinburn. The
Russian operations were delayed by the expectation of an Au-
trian army, which, in connexion with a Russian force under
Soltikow, was to make an incursion into Moldavia, and which
Joseph II. was to send, after having declared war in February
against the Turks upon grounds entirely insupportable: this
delay was protracted till king Gustavus began to exhibit sym-
ptoms of making an attack on the provinces contiguous to Swe-
den, which were now deprived of means of defence.

144 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

Gustavus III. would also willingly have induced Denmark to
take part in the movement against Russia ; in this however he
was unsuccessful^ although supported by England and Prussia.
He took a journey in person to Copenhagen to endeavour to win
over the Danish minister to his views. At that time he made no
concealment of his intention of commencing the war; and in
June^ Rasumowsky appealed to his declarations in a diplomatic
note, in which he in some measure accused the king before the
Swedish nation. In this note he alluded to possible internal
disturbances, and no longer addressed himself exclusively to the
king ; but as he expressed himself, appealed to all those who had
taken any part in the government of Sweden. This note, which
was delivered on the 18th of June, touched the king in the most
sensitive part ; he could not therefore any longer restrain his in-
dignation. Rasumowsky was ordered to leave Stockholm on
the 23rd, and went to the army in Finland*. The king appeared
as if he designed immediately to march against Petersburg,
which excited no small concern in the minds of the government,
because, in confident reliance on the king's understanding with
the Swedish nobles, the whole of their good troops had been
despatched to the frontiers of Turkey.

The king of Sweden was acquainted with the feelings of his
nobles, consequently with those of the generals and officers of
the army which he wished to employ; he therefore endeavoured
to deprive the malcontents of the apparently legal point of a re-
fusal to serve, by changing the offensive war which he contem-
plated into a defensive one, and for this purpose had recourse to
a very childish subterfuge. There had been a long-existing dis-
pute between the two countries respecting the bridge over the
small river Kymene, the boundary between the two states, whe-
ther it should be painted in Swedish or Russian colours; he
provoked the Russians to maintain this disputed right by force

* In his answer, dated the 23rd of June, the king observes : — " Ce ministre
(Rasumowsky) n'a pas hesit^ d'en appeller ii d'autres encore qu'au roi seul, il
Tadresse k toas ceux qui ont part 2i radministration ainsi qu'k la nation elie-
mSme ; pour les assurer des sentiroens de sa souveraine et de Tint^rSt qu'elle
prend k leur tranquillity." The king then proceeds most justly to complain of
this Russian demagogue. The empress's answer contained in her declaration
of the 1 1th of July is dull and weak ; she remarks however expressly, " thai
she is of opinion the Icing will be restrained from war by hi$ promise given to hi$
oim tiation not to engage in any offensive war without first assembling and con-
sulting his estates and obtaining their consent.** (See Schlozer's Staatsanzeigen,
12r Band, S. 168.)

§ II.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WEBBLA. 145

of arms, and then proclaimed that he had been attacked by the
Russians, and was therefore justified in carrying on a defensive
war without consulting the estates. We leave it undecided whe-
ther he took possession of the bridge by force, and thereby com-
pelled the Russians to resist force by force ; or whether, as the
best accounts allege, he caused some Swedes to be clothed in
Russian uniforms in order to attack his own soldiers, and in this
way to justify an offensive war.

The distance from the river Kymene to Petersburg is less than
150 miles. There would have been no difficulty in storming the
small fortresses of Wyburg and Friedrichshamm, which lay upon
the route, and an unexpected attack from the sea might probably
have led to the surprise and capture of Cronstadt and Cron«
slot, the former of which is less than twenty miles from the open
waters, and the latter is situated on a sand-bank in the sea.
The favourable moment however for an attack by sea had been
already allowed to pass by the king's brother Charles duke of
Sudermania, who commanded the Swedish fleet ; and by land,
the king was precipitate when he ought to have delayed, and
hesitated when everything depended on rapidity. On the 22nd
of June^ duke Charles with fifteen ships of the line and five
frigates had fallen in with three sail of Russian ships, to the
north of the island of Gothland, which he ought to have cap-
tured, but was restrained by a feeUng of reluctance to begin the
war, which was then actually commenced, and immediately a su-
perior Russian fleet appeared. Admiral Greig, an Englishman,
who commanded the Russian fleet, was far superior to the Swe-
dish grand-admiral and prince in talents, experience, and power
of endurance ; his fleet outnumbered the Swedish by two ships of
the line and two frigates, and therefore the issue of the engage-
ment between the two fleets which took place on the 17th of
July was the more glorious for the Swedes. The Swedish fleet
under duke Charles and admiral Wrangel fell in with the Rus-
sians off the island of Hogland, and fought with great skill and
courage; the Swedes it is true lost one of their line-of-battle
ships, but took one of the Russian fleet in its stead ; they were
however at length compelled to seek for safety in the harbour of
Sweaborg, where their ships were kept in a state of blockade by
the Russians during the whole of the campaign.

The king made himself ridiculous as a mere quixotical brag-
gart. The secretary of his embassy in Petersburg delivered such

VOL, VI. L

146 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

an extremely absurd ultimatum, that no other answer was given
than an order from the commandant to take his departure from
the capital. Guatayus played the character of a paladin most
admirably, but proved himself wholly incapable in the field.
With the army, as in Stockholm, he delighted to be a king and
knight among the ladies, at balls, operas and tournaments, as
we are informed even by his eulogist, whose words we give in a
note*. The honest Arndt does not conceal from his readers^
however much he wished it had been otherwise, that his beau
ideal of a monarch trifled away three precious weeks when a
moment's delay might have frustrated all his plans. The king
commanded armaments to be prepared and a commissariat to be
provided, but he left the whole superintendence to others, who
neglected everything, and instead of preparing means to oppose,
entered into secret correspondence with the Russians. All this
immediately appeared, when the king at length resolved to put
all in quick motion and to storm the fortress of Friedrichs-'
hamm. He found himself destitute of heavy artillery and other
materials of war, which he supposed were all in readiness, and
whilst the artillery was being slowly brought up by land and he
became desirous of venturing upon a storm, the nobles were de-
vising the most shameful treason.

It was arranged that Friedrichshamm should be at once at-

* The absurd and childishly insolent ultimatum itself may be seen in Scblo-
zer's ' Staatsanzeigen/ 12r Band, S. 175-176. Arndt in bis 'Schwedische
Oeschiehten/ dec. S. 1 lO-l 1 1, writes as foU^ms : — " Instead however of play-
ing the game of war, or at least the outward appearances of that game among
men who looked for northern vigour and old-fasnioned deeds, he played merely
the actor. Exposed as he was to the unfavourable opinion of many or bis nobles
and in a great crisis of things, — ^a bloody war was at stake upon the cast, — ^he
should have put on the coat and spurs of Charles XII., and so caparisoned have
shown himself among the ranks of his Swedes and Finns, instead of appear-
ing among those who were to thunder off the cannon of the eighteenth cen-
tury like a mock knight at a tournament, with his party-coloured Bur^ndian
silk vest, with fluttering ribbons of various hues in his feathered hat, m shoes
bound with red ribbons on horseback, or even as a Neronian imitator of the
representations of mimes and singers. He actually had with him in the camp
singers, actors and poets. Operatic and theatrical rehearsals were given, and
many of his joyous and brave companions were at the same time players and
gen nine actors with their feathers and sword. It was really king Arthur and
his knights in camp, and all of them afterwards proved that they were capable
both of giving and receiving wounds." But everything has its time and
place: Schlozer's correspondent furnishes us with some o&er traits; he says :
" A comedy was played with the flag of a conquered ship ; knights were
dubbed in the open air, a triumph was celebrated, and some Prussian flags
captured in the seven years' war were mentioned, which were taken fh>m a
merchant brig."

§11.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WERELA. 147

tacked both by sea and by land^ and Siegeroth had actually
landed his troops and commenced operations, when he suddenly
received counter orders^ because the troops which were with the
king refused obedience. The king, who played the general with*
out possessing either the requisite abilities or experience, was
unfortunate in his selection of the point of attack from the land
side ; for it was either quite impossible to assault the fortress at
the place on which he had fixed, or its success would have been
attended with immense loss. The colonels of the various regi-
ments availed themselves of this circumstance to promote the
designs of the aristocratic conspirators, with whom Rasumowsky
had now been long in communication, and whose views were
not probably wholly unknown to prince Charles. On the 3rd
of August, colonel Haftesko, who commanded the Abo regiment,
first refiised to lead his men to the storm, and the colonels of the
other regiments immediately imitated his example. The king
used all his efforts in vain, by encouragements and promises, to
induce the regiment to advance to the attack : they piled their
arms and remained immoveable. Some Finnish regiments im-
mediately followed their example, and declared theif would not
advance a stepjurther. The manner in which the colonels after-
wards united at the castle of Anjala, formed a species of con-
gress, and treated with the Russians respecting a suspension of
arms, will be related at length hereafter ; we shall merely observe
in this place that it was quite impossible for the king to assert and
make good his authority and power, because the confederates at
Anjala were in reality masters of the army. In these circum-
stances the king had no other alternative than to return to Stock**
holm, in order there to recover his royal dignity and power
which he had lost at Friedrichshamm. He entered Stockholm in
September, and immediately afterwards received intelligence that
the commandant of Gothenburg and his staff had either been
guilty^of treachery or most shameful cowardice.

A Danish force had appeared before Gothenburg, because a
mutual treaty of offence and defence in case of attack had been
concluded between Russia and Denmark on the termination of
their disputes respecting Holstein and Sleswick. Gustavus, on
his unsuccessful journey to Copenhagen, in order to form an al-
liance with Denmark, thought he perceived that a period of
eighteen months at least must elapse before a Danish army could
be brought into Sweden, but he was greatly deceived. The Danish

l2

148 PIFTH PERIOD. — PIEST DIVISION, [CH. II,

army indeed as well as the fleet were far from being in such a
state of preparation as to be capable of being immediately
brought into action, but Charles landgrave of Hesse and brother-
in-law of both kings, as viceroy of Norway, collected 12,000
men, and appeared before Gothenburg at the very moment in
which king Gustavus was returning from Friedrichshamm to
Stockholm (September 1788).. The march of this Danish army
through dangerous passes and along the most difficult roads
excited the highest degree of astonishment throughout the
whole of Europe, because it was undertaken in very inclement
weather, over cold mountains, and at a very advanced season
of the year. The crown prince of Denmark, who for four years
had conducted the government instead of his unhappy father,
was present with the Norwegian army as a volunteer, and shared
in all the privations incident to such a march. On this occa-
sion king Gustavus recovered some portion of the respect and
esteem of the citizens and peasants which he had previously
lost, because he alone delivered Gothenburg, whilst a powerful
party of the nobles in Stockholm carried on an iminterrupted
correspondence with the conspirators of Anjala, and the king for
that reason passed the greater part of his time at his country
palace of Haga, and seldom came into the city.

The citizens of Gothenburg, accustomed to trade, commerce
and prosperity, refused to take arms or to be trained when the
garrison proved too weak and they were called upon to serve,
because, as they expressed themselves, they were unwilling to
endanger their property on the reduction of the town by taking
part in its defence ; the king was therefore obliged to resort to
other means. He prevailed upon the citizens of Stockholm to
undertake the military duties of the capital, by which he was en-
abled in the beginning of September to send the foot^guards and
the regiment of Jamtland as reinforcements to the garrison of
Gothenburg. Gustavus himself afterwards travelled to Dalecarlia,
Warmeland and other provinces of the kingdom, in order to call
the peasants to arms and to organize means for preparing them
for military service : in this way he succeeded in raising an efficient
body of militia. Having accomplished his wishes in this respect,
he went in person to Gothenburg, which was closely invested and
pressed on the land side by a Norwego-Danish army, and block-
aded by a Russo-Danish fleet. The king arrived just in time to
prevent the shameful surrender of a city next in rank and im-

§ II.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WERELA. 149

portance to the capita] of his kingdom. He was compelled im-
mediately to dismiss the miserable commandant, caused the
neglected fortifications to be repaired, increased and strength-
ened, and by his personal influence and appeals induced the
citizens to make efforts and to submit to sacrifices which they
had previously refused. The Danes were anxious to reduce Go-
thenburg before Prussia and England — which at that time were
eager to use all possible means against the Russo- Austrian alli-
ance, without at first using any other instrumentality than that
of money and diplomatic arts, — were in a condition to offer any
serious obstructions. Their plan however was completely frus-
trated by the activity of the king, who on this occasion could
reckon on the support of Prussia and England. These two
powers had concluded a treaty on the 13th of August 1788, by
virtue of which each promised the other very considerable and
effective assistance when either of the two should claim such aid
from the other*. The treaty indeed neither referred to the Rus-
sians nor the Turks by name, but the alliance was manifestly
directed against Austria and Russia, as became evident in the
course of the negotiations for the deliverance of Gothenburg.
Elliot, the English ambassador, arrived in that city sooner than
the Prussian, Von Borke, and immediately had recourse to very
brutal language. On the arrival of the Prussian minister the
two parties acted in concert; but Von Borke, without resorting to
such tyrannical language and conduct as Elliot, satisfied himself
with hinting at a possible inroad of the Prussians into the pro-
vince of Holstein. Elliot, after the tyrannical fashion of his
countrymen, threatened the Danes with the EngUsh fleet and
with the bombardment of Copenhagen, and in person com-
manded them to raise the siege of Gothenburg, by haughtily de-
claring that ^^ if the Danes did not immediately withdraw from
Gothenburg and leave Sweden, they might consider the war as
declared on the part of England and Prussia.^' Notwithstanding
this, the two ambassadors were very far from entering into the
romantic views of the king of Sweden, to which for that reason
we shall make no further allusion. Their only object was to
compel the crown prince immediately to give orders for the with-

* This treaty, together with copies of all the docaments connected with the
negotiationa carried on between Sweden and the Danes, as well as the terms
of the three suspensions of arms, will be found in the third part of the first
edition of Marten's ' Recueil ;' in the second edition (1818), vol. iv. pp. 390-
393 and pp. 429-437.

150 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

drawal of the troops to Norway, as this would have become im-
possible as soon as the winter had fairly set in. On the 9th of
October 17B8, the Danes first agreed to a suspension of hostili-
ties for eight days, which was renewed from time to time, till
they at length promised, in May 1789, no longer to molest
Sweden, after having returned to Norway in the previous year,
before the setting-in of the winter season.

The king, now relying confidently on the citizens and peasants,
was able to direct all his energies to repress the turbulent and
rebellious spirit of the nobles, who whilst they were playing the
chief characters at all his court festivities, were at the same time
acting as traitors against his throne and dignity, because he
aimed at maintaining his royal prerogatives and supporting the
magnificence of his kingly ofiice. On the arrival of the officers
firom the army of Finland in Stockholm in September, they were
precisely the worse received by the body of the citizens in pro-
portion as the conspiracy in which they were engaged had been
already acknowledged by Russia as its work. The king on his
departure fiH>m the army had conferred the command on his bro-
ther, prince Charles, whose conduct on this occasion, as well as
afterwards in the first decennium of the present century, was very
equivocal. The prince either could not or would not hinder his
generals and colonels firom publicly carrying on negotiations
with Russia without consulting the king. The empress was not
ashamed to treat with a number of ofiicers, who had proved them-
selves to be traitors to their king in the presence of his enemies,
as if they were the representatives of the whole Swedish nobility ;
and this even before the king had retired from the personal com-
mand of the army. General Armfeld and colonels Haftesko,
Otter and Klingspor, on the 9th of August signed an address
to the empress, which was presented to her by major Jagerhom,
to which she replied in the politest and most obliging terms. In
her answer she said, that she knew well how to distinguish be-
tween the nation and the king, that she therefore merely re-
quested the army of Finland to retire from the firontiers of her
empire, but that she would on the other hand drive off the Swe-
dish army of the king by force.

Before the arrival of this answer to the communication of the
9th of August, the ofiicers had already concluded the alUance or
union of Anjala on the 12th. This union, which was concluded
in Armfeld's camp, at the castle of Anjala, and not a gun-shot

§ II«] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THC PBAOE OF WERELA. 151

from the Russian frontiers, immediately published a declaration
against the war with Russia^ agreed upon an appeal to the
Swedish army in Finland, and at the same time resolved upon
demanding a meeting of the diet. The declaration against the
war with Russia soon received 12,000 signatures, and even the
name of the king's brother was amongst the number, furnishing
a proof of his constant adherence to his very equivocal political
prudence. The traitors therefore were apparently fully justified
in concluding a suspension of arms with the empress. The pri-
mary advantage of the truce was, that duke Charles was enabled
to release his fleet from their captivity in the bay of Sweaborg
and to return 'to Carlscrona. Public opinion however underwent
a cozhplete change at the moment in which the king delivered
the country, whose honour and distinction in Europe were bar-
tered away by the ambitious and covetous nobles, and he had
therefore from Gothenburg already summoned a diet, to meet in
February 1789. At this diet the king exhibited the same poli-
tical talent in availing himself of the baseness of the landowners
and the jealousies of the citizens and peasants, of which he had
previously given examples in 1772. .'At first he intentionally
permitted and even caused the nobility to give proofs of the
insolence and foolish pride by which they were influenced, in
opposing and counteracting every measure which the king
wished to adopt for the benefit of the dther estates which were
favoured by him ; and as soon as the deepest feelings of hostility
and indignation were thus roused, Ghistaviis, confidently relying
on the support of the whole bodies of citizens and peasants, and
especially upon the citizens of Stockholm, carried into efiect, on
the 17th of February, the cotgt dPiiat which he had long designed.
In this plenary assembly of the estates, the king returned his
best thanks to the estates of the clergy, citizens and peasants in
that manner which never fails of its effect upon the thoughtless
migority of men, and in that theatrical, rhetorical and a&cting
language in which he was so much at home as an orator, poet
and actor. He held however very different language to the
nobles. He vehemently assailed the whole estate and threw out
against them the bitterest reproaches, looking sternly in the face
of count Axel Fersen and baron von Geer, who had hitherto by
their cabals frustrated all those measures which he was anxious
to carry through. At last he ordered the whole body to leave
the assembly till they had given satisfaction for the insults in-

152 FIFTH PERIOD. — I^IRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

fiicted upon the grand-marshal of Sweden^ count von Lowen-
haupt. This was a mere artifice, in order to enable the three re-
maining estates to adopt resolutions to which the nobles were
opposed^ and which nearly affected their own privileges. In the
diet of 1786 it was resolved^ that aU measures whatsoever which
should be sanctioned by three of the estates in the diet should
become law. With regard to the grand-marshal, the estate of
the nobles replied in a manner very acceptable to the king, by
declaring that in their minutes they could find no trace of any
insult or offence, and could therefore offer no satisfaction, be-
cause no one had been offended.

The estate of the nobles indeed declared, that in questions
pertaining to their own privileges, the resolutions of the three
estates could never have the force of laws ; but the king had
recourse to other means for promoting his views. As early as the
20th he sought permission from the deputies of the three other
estates to apply all the means at his disposal to give effect to the
resolutions of the diet, which in other words was the same as to
call upon him to renew the measures adopted in 1772, and to
employ military force. He now again united the retiring palace
guard with that entering upon duty, but on this occasion he
caused more than thirty of the most violent members of the
aiistocratical party to be arrested and thrown into the state-pri-
son of Friedrichshof. The commanders of the Finnish regi-
ments, or rather the confederates of Anjala, were also arrested
and brought to Stockholm, in order to be tried by a court-
martial. This was the introduction to the new revolution or
change of the constitution which the king thought himself able
to effect with the consent of the affrighted aristocracy now de-
prived of their bolder leaders, and over the heads of whose firiends
and relations was suspended the sword of martial law.

On- the day after the arrest of the heads of the opposition, the
21st of February 1789, he called a plenary assembly of the
estates, and dechured in the presence of the whole four, that he was
far from ascribing to the whole body of the nobility those crimes
which had been committed by some of its members, and he there-
fore confidently submitted to the estates a proposal for a renewed
increase of the royal power. This proposal was contained in a
document known under the name of an act for union and se-
curity, which together with the abolition of the restrictions im-
posed upon the royal authority, and which Gustavus had suffered

§ II.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WERELA. 153

to remain in 177^^ at the same time imposed restrictions on the
privileges enjoyed by the nobles to the prejudice of the other
estates. It was stated in this act^ that for the future all the
higher as well as the lower offices of state should be open to the
class of citizens as well as to the aristocracy^ and that the former
should enjoy the same freedom from arrest as the latter ; and
finally all citizens and peasants were to be as free to purchase
and possess real estates of every description as the nobility.
The articles in favour of monarchical power were as follows : —

The king shall in future govern the kingdom by his sole au-
thority and according as he shall deem rights declare war and
conclude pea^e^ appoint to all offices in the state, and superin-
tend the administration of law and justice. The council of the
kingdom therefore shall no longer possess any political rights,
but merely constitute the highest judicial tribunal of the realm,
and the opinion of the diet shall only be taken respecting extra-
ordinary taxes, or such matters as the king shall think it right to
submit to its consideration. The three other estates immediately
accepted this act of security, but that of the nobles obstinately
and perseveringly refused its assent and signature. The dispute
was prolonged till the middle of the month of March, on the 16th
of which the nobles at length gave an absolute refusal to the
solemn appeal which was made to them to give their assent and
consent to the act. The king paid no further attention to the
fact, that the diet of 1786, in declaring that every measure sanc-
tioned by the three estates should have the force of law, had
expressly excepted fundamental laws, privileges , and approval of
taxes, but commanded count Lowenhaupt, marshal of the king-
dom, to subscribe in the name of the whole order of knights and
nobility of the kingdom. The aristocracy indeed proclaimed
their wrongs, protested against this attack upon their privileges,
and even went so far as to apply for aid to the Prussian govern-
ment, whose principle at that time was the maintenance of every-
thing old, whether it was good or bad ; king Gustavus however
found means finally to attain his object. By his proceedings he
not only frightened the nobles by hinting at the employment of
soldiers and popular commotions, but he had also great success
in winning them over by his words and speeches, in the use of
which he was a great master.

The king himself appeared in the chamber of nobles, sur-
rounded by the people, who greeted him with every demonstra-

154 PIPTB PBEIOD. — PIEST DIVISION. [OH. II.

tion of respect and rejoicing, and who at the same time used
violent and threatening language against his opponents; besides^
the king, who remained for three hours in the chamber of this
embittered caste, had given express orders to the horse-guards
to hold themselves ready to act on a moment's notice. We do
not venture to allege, as the eulogists of the king have done,
that in the course of these three hours he conquered their resist-
ance by his eloquent appeals^ or whether, as appears from the
history of his murder a few years afterwards by the leaders of his
opponents, the aristocracy merely chose the less of two evils,
when its members consented to subscribe the act of union and
security. This estate having yielded and signed the act, the diet
was dissolved on the 28th of April, and the object of the king
was attained. He was now dictator and autocrat ; the estates had
undertaken the national debts, the loans to be raised by the
king were guaranteed, and the moneys necessary for the prose-
cution of the war with Russia were granted. For these reasons,
a course of mildness was pursued towards the leaders of the
aristocracy'^. In consequence of the punishment inflicted on
the leaders of the conspiracy in Finland, all the members of the
higher nobility were at this time removed from the army, and
the command fell into the hands of the Germans who had re-
mained loyal, and who, like their companions in the German
armies, neither knew nor wished to know anything of a consti-
tution, but were only bent on military honours and acquainted
with military obedience and promotion. In the meantime Rus-
sia had fully attained the object she had in view, by stirring up
this rebellious spirit among the Swedish nobles ; the favourable
moment for the king of Sweden's prosecution of the war was
now past, and the Russians had already completed all their pre-

* Arndt, whom we always follow if possible with pleasure, speaking of
these events, expresses himself as follows :— " The most distinguished members
of the aristocraicy seized upon the 20th of February 1789 were, counts Axel
Ferseu, Horn and De Geer, director Fritzky, a really noble and patriotic man,
and colonels A rmfelt, Schwarzer (a Pomeranian) and Marlean. They were
detained for about a month in honourable custody in the castle of Frie-
drichshof and then again set at liberty. In Finland a court-martial was also
held on the commanders of regiments and colonels, and almost all of them
were condemned to deatli together with the chiefs of the confederates of
Anjala. In this case also Gustavus adopted a mild course. Colonel and
baron von Haftesko alone, a native of Finland, suffered death ; tome were sent
to the West Indies to the island of St. Bartholomew, recently received in ex-
change from France, and among these colonel Montgomery. Others were
sent over sea to Germany, and the remainder pardoned."

§ II.] BWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THB PBACE OF WERELA. 1S5

parations by land and sea for the defence of their provinces bor-
dering upon Sweden. Oustavus's project of burning the Rus-
sian fleet in the harbour of Copenhagen was totally unworthy of
those knightly feelings which he affected, since respectable and
honourable persons could not be employed, and he was obliged
to have recourse to adventurers and incendiaries*. When the
king again joined the army in Finland, his Swedes gave evidence
of their attachment and courage ; but he himself again played
the hero and commander, and contrived to injure the success of
the war by his absurd interference in its conduct. In the mur-
derous fights which ensued from the middle of June till the end
of July, both the Russians and the Swedes lost great numbers
of men, without any other benefit or gain on either side than
military renown. The Swedes in the meantime were unfortu-
nate at sea^ and they would therefore have been in no respects
profited by their success had they been victorious by land.

Admiral Ehrenswerd was entrusted with the command of the
Swedish flotilla of flat-bottomed boats constructed for navigating
the rocky shallows of the coast, whilst the Russian fleet of a
similar character was placed under the orders of the prince of
Nassau-Siegen, who had shortly before been commander of the
Russian fleet in the Black Sea, and fallen into disputes with
Potemkin which led to his being sent to the Baltic. The Rus-
sian ships of the line were under the command of admiral
Tschitschakow, and contained a considerable number of British
naval officers of experience. This fleet had fallen in with that
of the Swedes as early as the 26th of June, which was so injured
in an engagement between Bomholm and Gothland as to be
obliged to return to Carlscrona. The unfortunate issue of the
battle was generally ascribed to disloyalty on the part of some
of the noble naval ofiicers, who failed to take an active share in
the engagement from evil intention. This was certainly more
than mere suspicion or malicious accusation, for admiral Lilien-
horn was arrested and called before a court-martial. With
respect to the proceedings by land, the king^s interference in the
direction of afiEisdrs was manifestly the sole cause of the loss which
was suffered in August, when the Swedes were compelled to
evacuate the Russian territory, after having obliged a Russian

* He employed such men as Albedyl, to whom he gave the title of chargi
d*affaxre» in Copenhagen, Benzelstierna, an Irishman named O'Brien, an En-
glishman called Shields, and others.

J 56 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION* [CH. II.

division to retreat on the 28th of June at Davidstadt, and an-
other at Likala on the 3rd of July. The king still persisted in
his determination of opening up a way for himself to Petersburg,
and therefore of storming Friedrichshamm. He directed the
plan for the execution of the project, although he was properly
speaking merely a volunteer with his army. By his interference
he exposed the Swedish army to a considerable loss, on the very
same day (the 24th of August) on which the Russian flotilla
gained an important victory over the Swedes at Rogensalm.
Friedrichshamm, according to the king's command, was to be
stormed by the three generals Siegroth, Kaulbart and Platen ;
the assault however failed of success, and the Swedes were
obliged to retire; their flotilla was twice beaten. The first vic-
tory of the Russians at Rc^ensalm was attributed to the prince
of Nassau-Siegen, who however was accompanied by three or
four persons, who rendered him the same service which the
British ofEcers did to admiral Tschitschakow. On the 1st of
September the Swedish flotilla experienced a defeat at Hogfors,
and the land army, commanded by the king, was there also com-
pelled to retreat. • The loss in human life was indeed great, but
the real injury small, for the Swedish army continued till the
beginning of winter to occupy its quarters on the frontiers of
Russia.

During the winter, it is true, Gustavus withdrew from his
army, but he resumed his duties as commander as early as March
1790, and was now careful to supply all the deficiencies of the
two previous years. On the 15th of April in Finland he reduced
the two important posts of Kamakosky and Pardakofisky near
Wilmanstrand, his Swedes were victorious at Walkiala, and on
the 30th repulsed the Russians in their attempt to recover the two
posts just mentioned. On the 4th and 5th of May, the Swedes
were afterwards beaten at Aberfors by the Russian general Num-
sen, and lost twelve pieces of cannon. The king having again
taken Pardakofisky, the key of Sawolax, immediately caused a
portion of his land forces to embark in the flotilla, of which he
himself assumed the command, and ordered the remainder of the
army to press forward by the shore towards Petersburg, relying
on the assistance of the fleet, which was to receive them on
board in case of a defeat. The fleet consisted of nineteen large
ships, twenty-seven galleys, and a number of gun-boats, which
in all mounted about 2000 guns. It was absolutely necessary

§11.] SWEDEN AND RUSSIA TILL THE PEACE OF WBEBLA. 157

to the execution of this royal, but, under existing circumstances,
adventurous undertaking, that Friedrichshamm should in all
haste be reduced by storm. The king having been successful
on the 15th in a naval engagement, made his third attempt at
storming the fortress on the l7th and 18th of May, and notwith-
standing a great loss in men failed in effecting his object. Al-
though the way by land thus remained barred, he nevertheless
persisted in his design of terrifying the empress in her capital.

The king having now embarked a greater number of Swedish
troops than before, reached Wyburg, and on the 2nd of June
1790 disembarked a division of his army at Blorke, about forty
miles from Petersburg. The whole success of this rash under-
taking completely depended on his remaining master of the sea.
In order to maintain this superiority, duke Charles was to pre-
vent the junction of the two Russian fleets, one of which was
lying in Cronstadt and the other in Revel, and on the 3rd of
June he was ordered to seek out and engage the division of the
fleet in the former harbour. King Gustavus also interfered in
naval affidrs ; by his command, duke Charles was to relinquish
his position between the two Russian fleets and to approach the
flotiUa*. The Swedish fleet was no sooner thus withdrawn from
its position than an opportunity was afforded to the Russians to
form a junction between their two fleets, which actually took
place on the very day (the 6th of June) on which the duke
entered into the sound of Wyburg. The Swedish fleet was
blockaded by the Russian squadrons, consisting when united of
thirty ships of the line and eighteen frigates ; the former however
continued to keep up its connexion with the flotilla. It appears
by the accounts on which we found our history of these events,
that both the Swedish fleets would have been entirely lost, had
the two Russian admirals been able naval officers and qualified
for such a command. Captain PeUssier, who had served in Hol-
land, is said to have given admiral Tschitschakow advice which
he ought to have followed, had he not been too obstinately
attached to his own opinions ; Pelissier even pointed out to gene-

* According to Amdt, p. 123| the king was clearly to blame, because he
proved himself always incapable, and had no thorough acquaintance with the
duties of a commander, although he continued to play the character of a
hero. This may be easily traced even in the panegyrical tone of all the Ger-
man and Swedish histories of this campaign. Arndt says : — "The king, con-
trary to the advice of several, caused the large fleet to be brought to the flotilla
within the bay, between the Klippers and Islands."

158 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

rals Suchtelen and Soltikoff the places where they ought to have
erected their batteries in order effectually to bar the egress of
the Swedish fleet from the bay; no attention however was paid
to his advice. The prince of Nassau*Siegen proved himself to
be in no respect superior as a commander to admiral. Tschit-
schakow, who was at the head of the other fleet. If the plan of
duke Charles had been adopted^ the Russians would have been
victorious without a battle ; on this occasion however king Gus*
tavus and Stedingk rescued the honour of the Swedish name.

The Swedes had now been closely shut up in the bay of Wy-
burg for three weeks^ and at the end of June were reduced to
extremities ; in the beginning of July a grand council of war was
held. Duke Charles and many other members of the council
recommended a capitulation, but the king and Stedingk were in
favour of making a desperate effort to force their way through
the enemy's line. The attempt was accordingly made on the 3rd
of July, and through Tschitschakow's neglect led to success, at
least in as far as enabling the Swedish fleet to bring the block*
ading squadron to an engagement, which might have been effec-
tually prevented by the Russian admiral from leaving the bay,
if he had followed the good advice which he received. The
Swedes on this occasion not only risked their fleet, but their
army also, which contained the elite of the troops, whose services
they required on land against the Russians, and whom they had
now on board their ships. In this engagement therefore they
not only lost seven ships of the line, three frigates, and more than
thirty galleys and gunboats, but almost the whole of the royal
guards, the queen's regiment and that of Upland, amounting to
6000 or 7000 men, which had been put on board the fleet, and
were utterly destroyed in the engagement which took place in
the sound of Wyburg. Whilst the larger Swedish ships thus
endeavoured to gain the open sea, the flotilla had withdrawn for
safety into an arm of the gulf which runs parallel to the shore
and stretches towards Friedrichshamm. This inlet, called the
sound of Suenske, is extremely difiicult of access on the side
towards Friedrichshamm, in consequence of a group of rocky
islands at its mouth ; but it may be safely reached through the
open harbour of Asph, and the prince of Nassau-Siegen with the
Russian flotilla determined to pass into the sound in this way,
to seek out the Swedes in their place of refuge and attack them.

The Swedish ships were well-protected from the attack of the

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND BU8BIAN WAR WITH THB TURKS. 159

Russian fleet by roeks^ and when the prince gave orders for the
assault on the 9th^ the sailors were so exhausted and his orders
for battle were so unskilful, that the king of Sweden gained a
splendid victory on this and the following day. The loss of the
Russians was so great on this occasion as to have surpassed any
which they had suffered since the seven years' war. Fifty-five
vessels were captured, a number of others destroyed, and 14,000
Russians either taken prisoners or slain. The fickle king of Swe-
den, who had now completely dreamed out his dream of humbling
the pride and glory of Russia, already began to cast his eyes to-
wards France, and as early as the following year dreamed his
monarchical dream in favour of the French emigrants. The idea
of becoming the Cucupeter or Godfrey of Bouillon of this ari-
stocratical and monarchical crusade, which Burke at that time
proclaimed in the English parliament and in his work on the
French revolution, had been awakened in his mind as early as
1790, and the empress of Russia found means of strengthening
him in his waking dreams ; moreover his means were exhausted,
and he therefore lent a fiivourable ear to the proposal of Galvez,
the Spanish ambassador, who began to mediate for a peace be-
tween Sweden and Russia.

The peace between Sweden and Russia, concluded at Warela
on the Kymene on the 14th of August 1790, served to show
how empty all Gustavus's splendour was, and how unreal and
inefficient all the efforts were which he made. It was now seen
that all the blood had been shed to no purpose, and all the trea-
sures of his very poor khigdom mischievously squandered, for
everything remained on the footing on which it had been in the
spring of 17B8.

§111.

AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA, AND THEIR WAR WITH THE TURKS.

We have already related the manner in which Potemkin first
prevailed upon Joseph to concur in his plans, the most unrea-
sonable demands which he made upon the Turks, and finally
how he drove them to a precipitate declaration of war, by means
of his Russian emissaries who formed connexions with the maU
contents in every province of the Turkish dominions ; this decla-
ration furnished Austria with the necessary pretence for taking

160 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [OH. II.

part in the war. At that time France was fettered by an alliance
with Austria, England was engaged in negotiating an advan-
tageous commercial treaty with Russia, and at the end of 1787
Sweden was therefore the only ally from whom the Turks might
expect any immediate assistance. Instead however of paying
subsidies or providing auxiliary troops, as required by the terms
of the treaty, Joseph II. preferred forming a close alliance with
Russia, in order to share the conquests. It is only in our own
times that the official calculations respecting Joseph's measures
for the Turkish war, and the sums which were spent upon it^
have been given to the public, from which we learn that no-
thing was spared and yet it failed of success, because, as was
also the case afterwards in the following wars, the aristocracy
of the Austrian officials made it quite impossible ever to reach
the guilty, when he belonged to one of the higher classes. Men
speculated as diplomatists, generals, ministers and contractors ;
and this custom so oflen enraged the emperor Joseph, that
he interfered by violence, inflicted arbitrary punishments, or
increased the measure of those appointed by law ; but all this
contributed as little to improve the state of affairs in Austria at
that time, as similar conduct would do in Russia at the present
day.

The accounts of the first campaign of the Austrians have been
first published from official sources in the Austrian Military Ma-
gazine of the year 1831, and it may not therefore be unsuitable
here to introduce some of the reports which are there given.
The whole army was ready to take the field at the end of the
year 1787: it formed an immense cordon stretching from the
mountains on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to the Carpathians,
and consisted of a main body and five subdivisions. Unhappily
the emperor Joseph was desirous of commanding the main army
in person, under the unskilful direction of Lacy, his military
mentor, who, like his pupil and understrapper Mack, was a good
drill-sergeant and eye-servant, but no general. The main body
consisted of 25,000 infantry and 22,000 horse, and the whole of
the troops together amounted to 86,000 cavalry and 245,000
foot, accompanied by 898 pieces of artillery.

In February 1788, Russia and Austria declared war against
the Turks at the same time ; but as early as August of the same
year England and Prussia entered into an alliance, the main
object of which was to place Prussia in a situation to prevent

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAR WITH THB TURKS. 161

the aggrandizement of Austria, if necessary by force of arms.
This moreover was not necessary in the year 1788, because the
king of Sweden by his rash attack upon Uie Russians prevented
them irom proceeding with their usual rapidity, and the emperor
Joseph by his presence with the army frustrated the effect of
his immense armaments. According to the opinion of the best
judges of such military operations, the imperial army should
have occupied the country on the Save, taken Shabacz, liViddin
and Belgrade, and after the conquest of Nissa have scattered
their forces over the whole of Servia; Shabacz however alone
was reduced, and the si^e of Belgrade, which was commenced
with great cost in May, was immediately afterwards given up
by the emperor's express command. In a similar manner the
whole of the measures adopted by the several divisions have been
severely blamed by those who are much better skilled in mili-
tary operations than we can profess to be. The numbers of the
army were -seriously diminished by the vapours and pestilential
miasma of the unhealthy and swampy districts lying on the
banks of the Save, the Drave, and the Danube ; because one
part of the army was carried off by disease and another was ren-
dered unfit for service. The dissatisfaction with the emperor
and the courtly Lacy, and with the whole conduct of the war
became so general, that Joseph was at length obliged to resolve
earnestly to entreat the aged and declining Laudon, who had
been properly speaking, the popular hero of the Austrians since
the time of the seven years^ war, to assume the command.
This general had previously excused himself in consequence of
his age and ill-health, but notwithstanding this, he now under*
took the chief command of an independent body of troops in
Croatia, which were entrusted to him.

Laudon, having made an express stipulation with the emperor
that he was not to interfere with his plans, marched against
Croatia and immediately afterwards conquered Novi, whilst the
emperor himself was obliged to hasten to the aid of the army in
the Bannat, which was very hard-pressed by the Turks. The
division under Wartensleben, which should have supported the
army in the Bannat, had been driven back by the Turks, who
suci^eded in getting complete possession of the rocky bed
through which the Danube has forced a passage at a distance of
six hours and a half above New Orsowa, because the Austrians
had been guilty of an incomprehensible neglect. The pass,

VOL. VI. M

162 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

which is not more than a pistol-shot in widths is commanded by
a fortified cleft in the rocks, called Veterani's Hole*, and this
post the Austrians should and could have maintained when the
main body of the Turks appeared at Old Orsowa on the 7th of
August; this however they neglected to do. The Austrian
general suffered himself to be defeated and lost thirteen pieces
of cannon, and as his communications with the main army were
cut off, he was obliged to retreat so far, that the garrison of this
important post was left to its fitte. The Turks sacrificed great
numbers of men in order to make themselves masters of this
important pass, by the possession of which they immediately
became masters of the whole navigation of the Danube as far
down as Belgrade. ' As soon as the Danube was lost, the im-
perial army found itself threatened in the rear.

The Austrians had also evacuated Panczowa, and therefore
the whole of the plains between Ujpalanka, Pancsowa, Weis-
kirchen and Oppowa fell into the hands of the Turks, in conse-
quence of which the emperor was compelled to hasten forward
with the main army. He left thirty thousand men at Semlin,
and despatched Wartensleben with 40,000 men to support the
retreating army; but this expedition also proved unfortunate.
The emperor had encamped between Salota and Slatina, but
this position was soon found to be untenable, and at the dose
of autumn (the 20th of September) the army left the encamp-
ment in order to take up another position at Karansebes. On
the march thither, the army was seized with a most unaccount-
able panic, believed themselves to be threatened by the enemy, fell
into disorder, and mistook their own troops from the Sdavonian
frontiers for enemies. The regiments fired upon one another^
looked everywhere for an enemy where in reality there was
none, and aU attempts on the part of the emperor in person to
stop the firing and put an end to the confusion were vain. He
was in fact separated from his suite and wandered about igno-
rant of his way; it was even supposed that he had been taken
prisoner, when at length, accompanied by a single individual, he
came to Karansebes* A detailed account of the singular story
of this night*march and its consequences does not appear to us
to belong to the province of general history ; it will however be

* Because field-marshal count Veterani, in the year l692j with captain
d'Arman, 300 men and five pieces of cannon, defended this passage for forty-
five days against the whole Turkish army«

$111.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAB WITH THE TURKS. 163

found both authentic and complete in the ^Austrian Military
Magazine of 1831.'

The army under the prince of Coburg, who had served in the
seven years' war, and afterwards^ in the revolutionary war against
the French, given such unfortunate proofs of the science of a
slow, methodical and mechanical spatterdash service, and at the
same time carried on political and diplomatic intrigues with
baron Thugut instead of fighting in company with Clairfait,
was somewhat less unfortunate in its operations than that under
Wartensleben and the emperor. This army, which was to be
reinforced with 10,000 or 12,000 men under Soltikoff, was in-
tended to act against Moldavia and Wallachia, and was obliged
at first to renounce all idea of reducing Choczim by force, which
the Russians had captured in the last war without firing a shot;
drcumstances however afterwards proved more favourable to its
success. Moldavia was occupied, Jassy taken, and the Turks shut
up in Choczim so completely cut off, that they were compelled
to evacuate the fortress in October. In this way, the Russians
in October were in possession of five districts of Moldavia and
of several passes in Wallachia, and the main army was again
able to extend the limits of its operations. Wartensleben sat
down with a part of the army before Mahadia, the emperor kept
possession of the country from Panczowa to Semlin, and the
division under Laudon made conquests in Bosnia and Croatia ;
and the small fortresses of Drosnick, Dubicza, Novi and Sha-
bacz were reduced.

After the massacre perpetrated by Suwarrow upon the Turks
on the promontory of Kinbum, the Russians had remained for
a long time quiet ; but by their possession of the coasts, they
effectually prevented the Turks firom landing any troops, and by
the capture of the island of Beresan, wholly excluded them from
the mouth of the Dnieper. It was not till late in the year 1788
thatPotemkin summoned Suwarrow to come to him fix>mKinbum
in order to conduct the siege of Oczakow ; the latter however was
wounded, and after his return to Kinburn the siege made very
little progress. The cold, the climate and avarice of Potemkin
defNrived the soldiers of the necessary supplies and destroyed
thousands j and the dreadftil cold and disease proved far more
iiqurious to the Russians^ who were suffering firom want, than
the attacks of their enemies* At length the frost became so
inlenso that the men were obliged to excavate pita for dwellingSy

u2

164 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

but the same frost also opened up a means of attacking the for-
tress after the Russian fashion^ that is^ without reference to the
sacrifice of thousands of men, of reducing the city a few weeks
earlier than they could otherwise have done. The city is com-
pletely protected on the side towards the Black Sea by a marshy
lake called Idman, the fortifications on this quarter are less
strong, and now that the lake was firozen, Potemkin issued
orders to storm the fortress from the sea side. On this occasion
the Russians were cruelly sacrificed, one regiment was no sooner
mowed down than another was compelled to advance, and above
four thousand Russians were slain before the storming of Oc-
zakow was effected on the 16th of December 1788, an exploit
which was afterwards extolled to heaven. The Russians having
at length borne down all resistance and forced their way into
the city, were compensated for the losses and sufferings during
the siege by three days' murder and pillage : they put citizens
and soldiers, men, women and children to the sword without
mercy or distinction, as the much-lauded Romans also were ac-
customed to do when they took a city by storm. It is usually
stated that 20,000 Turks were massacred on this occasion, but
for the honour of the Russians we must express our doubts of
its truth. This piece of Russian heroism, which was not per-
formed by Potemkin himself, but by others at his command,
was also rewarded after the Russian fashion. Eveiy soldier
who had taken part in the siege received a medal of honour,
whilst Potemkin, who had contributed nothing to its success,
derived the only real advantage. The empress had previously
deprived Rasumowsky of the office of hetman, which she now
conferred upon Potemkin, who received in addition a present
of 100,000 roubles, besides what he had appropriated to him-
self out of the moneys destined for the besieging army, and
what he had seized upon from the rich booty which fell into
his hands after the capture of the city.

The death of the grand sultan Abd-el-Hamed, which took
place in April 1789, had no influence whatever on the relations
between the Turks and Russians, his successor Selim continued
to prosecute the war in 1789, and Suwarrow having recovered
firom the efiects of his wound, again joined Potemkin's army.
Repnin in like manner submitted to serve under a haughty
man whom every one feared and wondered at, although no one
could point out any, properly speaking, great qualities, any na-

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAR WITH THE TURKS. 165

tural talents or acquired capacities for which he deserved either
to be respected or admired. The character played by Potemkin
with the army in 1789 was precisely the same as that which
major Masson saw him play in Petersburg in 1790; in order
therefore to avoid delineations of character which we do not
like on account of their generality^ we shall quote Masson's
words in a note*. We introduce this passage from Masson
more particularly^ because as an eye-witness he presents one
view of Potemkin's character and habits^ whilst S%ur^ who was
also an eye-witness^ and to whom we have previously referred^
furnishes us with another. On Suwarrow's return to Potemkin's
army^ he found it in possession of the whole country from
Oczakow to the mouths of the Danube and then quartered in
Jassy ; he was immediately placed at the head of the division
which was to co-operate with the Austrians. During this year
1789^ Potemkin himself lay seven full months before Ismail at
the mouths of the Danube, whilst the inhuman Kamenskoi, like
another Attila, was carrying fire and sword, and perpetrating
robbery and murder in Wallachia.

By the campaign of the previous year the emperor^s health
had been seriously impaired, and he was now obliged to leave
the army; Lacy was also removed, who like a good courtier

* Masson, 'M^moires Secrets but la Rassie' (edit. 1804), vol. i. pp. 160,
161, observes: " Je laisserai aux voyageurs le soin de d^tailler la pompe de
ses htes, le luxe barbare de sa maison et la Yaleor de ses brillans ; et aux ^ri-
vailleors allemands celtu de raconter combien il y avoit de billets de banque
reli^ en goiae de livres dans sa biblioth^ne, et combien il payoit les cerises
dont il avoit contome d'offrir tons les premiers jours de Tan un plat & son
suguste sonveraine ; ou ce que coiltoit la soupe de sterlet, qui 6toit son mets
favori ; ou comment il envoyait un courrier k quelques cents lieues pour cher-
cher un melon ou un bouquet k ses mattresses." Tlien follows the chief point,
pp. 162, 163 : " II cr^it ou detruisoit oubrouilloit tout ; mais il vivifioit tout.
Absent on ne parloit que de lui ; pr^nt c'^oit lui seul qu'on voyoit. Les
Grands, qui lehaissoient et qui jouoient quelque r61e tandis qu'il ^toit k Tarm^,
sembloient k son aspect rentrer en terre et s'an^tir devant lui. Le prince
de Ligne, qui lui ^crivoit des flagomeries (he was well known in the whole of
Europe as a great master of court style and court wit, as may be seen from
count S^ur and madame de Stael), disoit : 11 y a du gigantesque, du roma-
nesque et du barbaresque dans ce caractdre \k, et c'^toit vrai. Sa mort laissa
un vaste immense dans Tempire, et cette mort fut aussi extraordinaire que sa
vie." He then relates how he lived a whole year in Petersburg in the middle
of the war, and suddenly died on his return to the army : " II avoit pass6 prb
d'un an k Petersburg, se livrant k toutes sortes de plaisirs, m6me des de-
bauches, oubliant la gloire et ^talant ses richesses et son credit avec un faste
insultant. II recevoit les plus grands de Tempire comme ses valets, daignoit k
peLae appercevoir le petit Paul et passoit quelquefois dans les appartemens de
Catharine, les jambes nues, les cheveux ^pars et en robe de chambre," &c.

166 FIFTH PBRIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

was obliged to take upon himself a share of the errors of the
past year, which did not properly belong to him. His place
was to be filled by Haddick, who however was seventy-eight
years of age, and in reality returned before he had taken any
part in the service. Laudon then received the command of the
whole army and commenced the siege of Belgrade ; the prince
of Cobui^ however retained the command of the division which
was to keep open the communications between him and the
Russians. During the campaign of 1789^ this prince gave such
numerous proofs of his incapacity to conduct any great under*
takings or even to help himself out of trifling difficulties, that
the history of the campaign of 1789 alone ought to have pre-
vented the emperor Leopold from entrusting him with the
command against the French, who possessed generals and sol-
diers of a very different kind from those of the Turks. Selim
III. had succeeded in getting on foot a very considerable foroe^
which was destined to operate on the extreme point of Moldavia
where that country touches upon Transylvania, and is separated
from Wallachia by a small river. ' This river divides the small
town of Fockschani into two parts, one of which belongs to
Moldavia and the other to Wallachia. Prince Coburg was ad-
vancing thither slowly and methodically, when the Turkish
army encamped in the neighbourhood of the town just men-
tioned, turned suddenly upon him and filled him with such
apprehensions of being completely shut in, that instead of
adopting bold measures and doing what Suwarrow afterwards
did, he anxiously sought to obtain his speedy assistance.

Suwarrow^s army was lying at Belat in Moldavia; when the
news reached him he never hesitated a moment, but marched
between forty and fifty miles in a direct line over mountains^
across ravines and pathless districts, and in less than thirly«
six hours reached the Austrians on the SOth of July, at five
o'clock in the evening. As early as eleven o'clock on the same
evening he sent the plan of the attack upon the Turks, which was
to commence at two in the morning, to the astonished princcj
who had never heard of such rapidity of movement, or never seen
it equalled even on parade. The prince's anxiety on account of
the Turks and their dreaded attack would have had something co-
mical in it, had it not afterwards become very tragical, in cons6«
quence of the preservation and deliverance of German honour and
the integrity of its empire and nationality having been confided to

5 III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAR WITH THB TURKS. 167

him and persons of a similar oharacter. He went three times to
Suwarrow's quarters without having seen him ; in the attack he
made no claim to the supreme command, which should have
belonged to him as the eldest general, but as a subordinate, sub-
mitted to Suwarrow's orders, which having been drawn up in
French, we give the original in a note"*". The Turks, to the
amount of between 50,000 and 60,000 men, were in position at
Fockschani, when the Russians and Austrians with 40,000 men
passed the river Puma and stormed their fortified camp, mount-
ing the ramparts and driving them at the point of the bayonet,
as if they were assaulting ordinary fieldworks. The camp was
taken in an hour with the loss of about 800 men ; the whole body
of the Turkish infantry fell into disorder, their cavalxy galloped
off, were scattered in all directions and pursued for some miles
with the greatest impetuosity and vehement zeal. The whole
of the baggage and artillery, all the stores collected in Fock-
schani, a hundred standards and seventy pieces of cannon fell
into the hands of the victors ; the Austrians exhibited the same
zeal, perseverance and courage as the Russians, and had they
possessed such a commander as Suwarrow, they would have
reaped immense fruits from the victory, but they became sen-
sible as early as August that they were in want of a proper
leader.

Suwarrow returned to Moldavia ; the prince of Coburg sub-
sided into his usual phlegmatic disposition, looked quietly on
whilst the Turks were collecting a new army, and suffered the
grand vizier to advance without obstruction into Wallachia.
The Turks directed Hassan Pasha, who lay in Ismail, to make
an expedition against Repnin, whilst the grand vizier was to
march against the prince of Coburg, who had taken up a posi-
tion at Martinesti on the river Rimnik. The news of this new
attack no sooner reached the Austrian camp, than Coburg, in-

* " Comme Tarm^e est assez repos^ (from 5 to 2 o'clock) elle se mettraen
monvement k deux heares du matin. Elle marchera sar trois colonnes. Lea
troupes imp^riftlet fonneront la droite et la gauche, je serai au centre. On
attaquera Ics avant postes de TenDemi avec toutes les forces, sans s'amuser
h les chasser des broussailles et des bois qui sont sur la droite, afln d'arriver k
la pointe du jour k la Purna qu'on passera pour continuer I'attaque. On dit
qu'il n'y a que cinquante mllles Tares, et que cinquante milles autres sont k
quelques marches en arriere. II vaudroit mieux qu'ils fussent ensemble, lis
seraient battus dans le mdme jour, et tout serait fini. Mais puisqu'il en est
autrement nous commencerons par ceux-ci, et avec la bravoure des troupes et
la gr&ce de Dieu nous remporterons la victoire."

168 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

stead of attempting to help himself^ again had recourse to Su-
warrow, who had abready drawn nearer to Coburg from Belat.
Very exaggerated accounts, as it seems to us, have been given
of the grand vizier^s army, which has been estimated at 100,000
men. His troops pushed forward rapidly by Braila (Ibrahil),
and compelled the advanced posts of the prince, again looking
to Suwarrow for deliverance, to retire into their camp. Su-
warrow received the prince's letter on the 16th of September,
immediately gave orders to march, and two days afterwards
succeeded in forming a junction with the Austrians, at the veiy
moment in which they were to have been attacked by the Turks.

The Austrians afterwards proved anew that they were not to
be surpassed, as soon as they were not commanded^ as was
usually the case, by princes and privileged persons, who be-
come generals whilst they sleep. The prince of Coburg, as
he had previously done at Fockschani, totally relinquished the
command of himself and his army at Martinesti on the Rimnik
to Suwarrow, who immediately availed himself of the oversight
of the Turks in not fortifying their camp before they offered bat-
tle, and attacked them by storm in their uncompleted trenches..
The issue was as glorious as it had been on the 31st of July at
Fockschani; the contest however was more obstinately main-
tained. On this occasion the Russians formed the ld% wing,
whilst the centre and right were occupied by the Austrians,
whose admirably-served artillery scattered the Turkish cavalry,
which on their part made an attempt to surround and cut off
the smaU body of the Russians. The victory in this dangerous
and hard-fought battle with the Turks was gained not merely by
the courage, activity, and bayonets of the Austrian and Russian
infantry, but espedally by the great military skill of the com-
mander. His orders to avoid the village of Bochsa, and first to
drive the Turks out of the woods by which they were covered
before commencing the main attack, have been greatly admired,
and above all his prudence in not sacrificing the infantry in a
blind storm, which were the more remarkable in a general ac-
customed to bring everything to a rapid determination.

The victory was splendid, the booty immense, the Turkish
army a second time utterly dispersed, — a necessary consequence
of the nature of its composition, — and the number of killed and
wounded much greater than at Fockschani. Prince Coburg, on
account of this victory, in which he was entitled to little share.

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAR WITH THE TURKS. 169

was created a field-marshal ; Suwarrow received the dignity of
a count of the empire from the emperor Joseph^ and what was
still more^ the empress of Russia for once gave the honourable
distinction of an appellative to a man who had really merited
the honour by his personal services ; she raised him to a level
with herTschesmenskian Orloff and her Taurian Potemkin^ and
called him Rimniksky^ from the name of the river on the banks
of which he had been victorious. Suwarrow had no sooner re-
turned to Belat in Moldavia^ and left the Austrian army to its
own resources^ than its commander again relapsed into indolence,
and no further advantage was taken of the victory. Coburg
in this war, as well as in that with France, was much more of a
diplomatic than a military general, and now returned to Fock-
schani; Laudon's undertakings in Servia, Croatia and Bos-
nia were merely politically important to Austria, as Potemkin's
conquests from the Dnieper and the Pruth to the mouths of the
Danube were for the Russians. The noble-minded emperor,
who was retarded by misfortunes, calumniated by priests and
privileged men of all classes, cast down by sickness and threat-
ened by England and Prussia, who in connexion with the wife of
the hereditary stadtholder supported the Belgians in their rebel-
lion, in the last months of his life had at least the pleasure of seeing
his arms victorious over the Turks. In the following year he
was removed by death, before the cabals of the Prussians were
able to rob him of the fruits of his victory. On the 22nd of
September Coburg's army was triumphant at Martinesti, and
on the 6th of October Belgrade surrendered to the arms of Lau-
don.

The success of the Russians caused so much disquiet among
the other powers, who were concerned for the preservation of
the existence of the Turkish empire, that they first encouraged
the king of Sweden in his warlike inclinations by every means
in their power, and then called forth a republic in Belgium,
founded upon the hierarchical and aristocratical principles of the
middle ages. Poland was also invited to throw off the Russian
yoke, and afterwards annihilated as an independent state, be-
cause Prussia shared the booty in territory and people which
were torn from the believers in Poland, in order to withdraw
those of the unbelievers from the Russians and Austrians. In
the course of the year 1789, the Russians, with irresistible rapi-
dity, took possession of all the fortresses in that district, which

170 FIFTH PERIOD, — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II,

is now united to their empire^ stretching from the Dnieper to
the mouths of the Danube. Golatz was reduced to ashes by the
cruel Kamenskoi. Ackerman surrendered on the 15th of Octo-
ber; Bender, Chodsebey, Belgrade^ Palanka submitted to the
victors, whilst England availed herself of the mediation of Prus-
sia, because she thought it more advisable to allow others to
negotiate, than completely to break with Russia on account of
the brutality always exercised by that nation against weaker
states.

In the first years of the government of Frederick William IL
of Prussia, count Herzberg retained the conduct of foreign
affairs, with which he had been entrusted by Frederick II., and,
as has already been observed, first effected an alliance between
Prussia, England and the Netherlands, and secondly, in August

1788, a union between Prussia and England, with a view to
counteract the designs of Russia and Austria upon the Turkish
empire. This refers to the time in which Frederick William had
not fallen completely into the power of mistresses, mystics, ob-
sGurists and members of secret orders. At the end of the year

1789, Herr von Dietz, Prussian ambassador in Constantinople^
was commissioned and empowered by Herzberg to conclude a
treaty with Turkey, by virtue of which Prussia was to guarantee
to the sultan the full and unimpaired possession of his empire^
and the ambassador actually concluded the treaty on the 16th
of January 1790. Perhaps the ambassador was precipitate in
concluding the treaty, or more probably Herr von Dietz was
accused of having exceeded his instructions, because the whole
circumstances were changed, by the emperor Joseph^s death in
the beginning of March 1790, and therefore Prussia deferred
the ratification of the treaty, or rather after five months' delay
agreed to it with many limitations*. This occurred at the very
moment in which Prussia offered its protection and alliance to
the Poles on condition of the cession of Danzig and Thorn, to
which they were unwilling to accede. Kalkreuth however was
sent to Warsaw, in order, as it was said, to put himself at the
bead of a united body of Prussians and Poles, destined for the
relief and assistance of the Turks. Another Prussian army was

* PrasBia delayed till June 1790, and then omitted everything which could
give the treaty, which was to be merely defensive, an offensive character ; and
the guarantee for the integrity of the Turkish empire, which, according to the
articles signed by Dietz, should have included the Crimea, was expressly con-
fined to Uie $taiua ant9 btUim,

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUgSIAN WAB WITH TBB TURKS. l7l

stationed on the frontiers of Galliciaj and the main body col-
lected in Silesia, so that when Joseph II. died on the 20th of
Februarj 1790, Prussia appeared to be ready to commence the
war against Austria. Preparations were also aealously continued
in the commencement of the reign of Leopold XL The king of
Prussia himself^ accompanied by the duke of Brunswick and
field^marshal Mollendorf^ went to Silesiai because Herzberg^s
negotiations with the imperial ministers led to no results, and
suddenly all the earlier difficulties disappeared on the personal
interoourse of the two rulers. Leopold II. had scarcely entered
upon his government, in March 17^0, when he opened a corre*
spondence with the king of Prussia which frustrated Henberg's
plans.

This distinguished scholar and statesman had not insisted^ as
was afterwards done, that Austria should relinquish all the con*
questo made by Laudon on the Save, the Drave and the Da-
nube, but had relied on the union which was entered inte be*
tween Prussia and the Poles, when the latter put an end to the
anarchy of their institutions, in order to make head against
Russia. According to Hersberg's scheme, Poland was to cede
Thorn and Danzig te Prussia, and to be indemnified by Austria
in Gallicia, whilst the emperor was to retain his conqueste in
Turkey. This formed the subject of Herabeig's negotiations
from the 18th of June, on which he joined the king in Schon*
walde^i and on the 86th opened a congress to treat for peace in
Keichenbach. The Reichenbach congress presented Hersbeiig's
enemies with the long-wished-for opportunity of driving' him
from office; he was hated by the obscurists, who had now
gained complete dominion over Frederick William, by virtue of
his sensual, voluptuous, and therefore also visionary fancy t and
who were decided enemies of all those improvemenU in the tra^
ditionary, religious and political institutions which Leopold as
emperor now fiivoured, after having proved himself the greatest
and ablest reformer among the princes of Europe, when he was
only grand*duke of Tuscany.

Herzberg continued to negotiate in Reichenbach with the
imperial ministers. Spielman, however, the plenipotentiary of
Ejiunitz^ the Austrian chancellor of stote, entered into a cor-
respondence with major-general von Bischoffswerder, the my«

* Sehdnwalde is situated between the towns of Reichenbach and Franken*>
Stein.

172 FIFTH PKRIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

stical and pietistic friend of the king of Prussia, as well as] the
companion and promoter of all his pleasures and follies, and
secretly gave the whole negotiation quite a different direction.
England and Holland had been already induced to protest
against Herzberg's proposals, and therefore the new schemes
which were sent from Vienna found immediate access to the
king. Spielman, who possessed the entire confidence of Kau-
nitz, caused a proposal for mediation to be submitted to the
king through Bischofiswerder, and offered on the part of Austria
to restore all the conquests made in the last war; this proposal
was very acceptable to the king, and Herzberg was very much
surprised when he received most unexpected orders, on the 27th
of July, to sign a number of preliminaries, very different from
those for which he himself had negotiated. In the articles,
Leopold agreed to lend no further aid to the Russians in the war
with the Turks, again to restore to the Belgians the rights and
privileges descended to them from the middle ages, to the annoy*
ance of the French, then engaged in rooting out the abuses of
the middle ages, and to the joy of the orangists in Holland and
conservatives in England ; for this reason Pitt and Van Spiegel
were to lend their assistance to the emperor in the destruction
of what was called the Belgian republic. The Prussian army
was to return to its stationary quarters, and 30,000 Austrians
were to be allowed to march to Belgium. Such were the essen-
tial contents of the treaty signed in Schonwalde, usually called
the Reichenbach convention.

In consequence of this convention, a suspension of hostilities
with the Turks was concluded by the Austrians in Giorgewo on
the 19th of September, and a congress for agreeing on the terms
of a treaty at Szistowa in Bulgaria. Proposals and consulta-
tions of aU kinds were made and entered into during the sittings
of the congress, which continued from the 30th of December
1790 till the 4th of August 1791, when a peace was finally con-
cluded ; but we do not think it necessary to refer to the nego-
tiations, because the essential conditions were contained in the
previous convention of Reichenbach. After the conclusion of
a peace with Sweden, Russia continued to prosecute the war
against the Turks without the aid of Austria. Ismail was long
besieged in vain by Potemkin ; it resisted a regular siege and
blockade, and Potemkin, who had relinquished the siege, re-
solved to assail the fortress in the same manner as had been pre-

§ III.} AUSTRIAN AND |IUSSIAN WAR WITH THE TURKS. 173

yiously successful in the case of Oczakow. For this purpose he
selected the same general as had captured the latter fortress.
At that time Potemkin continued to indulge in a life of luxuiy
and licentiousness in Bender^ before he went to Petersburg in
October 1790^ and lived there till shortly before his death; his
style of living was like that of an Asiatic monarchy whom it was
the business and duty of the whole world to serve and obey.
Suwarrow^ whom he ordered to Ismail^ was at Galatzj when he
received commands to reduce the fortress at all hazards, without
any reference to the number of men who must necessarily be
sacrificed in the capture. Suwarrow took such measures as
would seem to indicate that he designed a renewal of the regular
siege ; he drew together the scattered divisions of the troops, and
formed them into a large besieging army of about 40,000 men,
and ordered the small Russian fleet to come into the neighbour-
hood of the city, although his real design was to follow the same
course as he had successfully pursued before Oczakow, to take ad-
vantage of the severe firosts towards the dose of December, and
to reduce the fortress by storm. Had not Ismail, according to
ancient usage, been built without advanced works, a general
even like Suwarrow would scarcely have ventured on such
an attack, which in the then condition of the defences was
attended by such murderous consequences. On the 21st of
September the city was twice summoned, and on both occa-
sions the garrison and inhabitants were threatened with the fate
of Oczakow. The Turks however did not sufier themselves
to be terrified into submission, and the fearfiil storm was com-
menced on the 22nd, at four o'clock in the morning. The
wall was not mounted till eight o'clock, after an unexampled
slaughter; but still the hottest part of the struggle took place
in the city itself. Every street was converted into a fortress^
every single house became a bulwark, and the contest con-
tinued till it was twelve o'clock, before the Russians, advancing
through scenes of carnage and desperate resistance, reached the
market-place, where the Tatars of the Crimea, then imited with
the Turks, were collected. The Tatars fought for two hours with
all the energy and courage of despair, and afler they had been
all cut to pieces the struggle was still carried on by the Turks
in the streets. Suwarrow at length opened a passage for his
cavalry through the gates into the devoted city, who charged
through the streets and continued to cut down and massacre

174 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

the people till four o^clock in the afternoon. At the conclusion
of this dreadful butchery the Russians received the reward
which had been promised them when they \rere led to the
storm and to certain death, — the city was given up for three
days to the murder and pillage of the victorious troops.

Suwarrow himself, in his official report of this murderous un-
dertaking, with which he had been charged by Potemkin, states^
that in the course of four days 33,000 Turks were either slain
or mortally wounded, and 10,000 taken prisoners. He rates
the loss of the Russians at 2000 killed and 2500 wounded; a
number which seems to us as improbably small as the usual
accounts, which assign 1 5,000 as the Russian loss, seem exag-
gerated. There were two French emigrants present at this
storm, one of whom afterwards became celebrated as a Russian
governor-general and French minister, and the other as. a Rus-
sian general in the war against his countrymen. The first was
the duke de Richelieu, or as he was then called De Fronsac, and
the second the count de Langeron. Kutusow also served in this
aJSTair under Suwarrow and led the sixth line of attack.

About this time the whole diplomacy and aristocracy of Eu-
rope were busily employed in endeavouring to rescue the Turks,
in order either to retard or destroy the dangerously rapid pro-
gress of the French and Poles, which caused great alarm among
all the friends of the middle ages. There speedily grew up such
a general feeling as the English wished to promote — of two evils
to choose the least— to secure and uphold the empire of the
Turks and to annihilate the nationality of Poland. Moreover,
Russia even then very wisely declined the proffered mediation
of England in the war with the Turks, as she had resolved for
this time to give up her conquests in Turkey in order to in-
demnify herself in Poland ; she accepted merely the intervention
of the firiendly Danes. It had become already obvious in the
preceding century, that the Turks, notwithstanding the peace
which Russia was then negotiating, and which was afterwards
concluded in January 1792 with the grand sultan at Szistowa
and Oalatz, would not be able sooner or later to escape the fate
which has befallen them in our century.

Potemkin and the empress were not unthankful for Suwar-
row's servility, since, in the spirit of flattery, he threw himself
and all his services at their feet, and ascribed everything to them
alone. Repnin, whom Potemkin left at the head of the army

§ III.] AUSTRIAN AND RUSSIAN WAR WITH THE TURKS. 175

when he went to Petersburg in October 1790^ pursued a very
different course. He crossed the Danube with his army^ pushed
forward into Bulgaria, and caused the whole Turkish army to be
attacked and beaten near Babada by general Kutusow, after
Gudowitsch had previously completely put down the Tatars in
Cuban in January 1791* At the head of 40,000 Russians, Rep-
nin then advanced against 100,000 Turks, under the command
of the same vizier, Tussuf, who had fought with such success
against the emperor Joseph in the Bannat. Potemkin, eager to
reap the triumph of the victory, flew with the rapidity of light-
ning from Petersburg when both armies were ready for battle
(July 1791). He took it for granted that Repnin would cer-
tainly await his arrival at the army ; but he did exactly the re-
verse. He offered battle before Potemkin's arrival, who was
accustomed constantly to enjoy the fruits in the gathering of
which he had no merit. The victory which Repnin gained over
the great Turkish army in July at Matzin led to warm disputes
between him and Potemkin, who came too late to have any par-
ticipation in the honours of the day ; Repnin however still re«
mained in command of the army. Potemkin afterwards did
everything in his power to prevent the peace for which Repnin
was to negotiate, although he clearly saw that the course of
politics evidently required the Russians to give up this whole-
sale conquest of Turkish provinces. Happily, this blood-
sucker and tyrant of the Russian empire, whose property in
sterling money has been underrated at 52,000,000 roubles, was
suddenly carried off. His death, as is usual in similar cases, has
been ascribed to poison, but the supposition is certainly un-
founded.

At a country house near Jassy (Koppo) Potemkin was seized
by a malignant fever, and presumed to treat his illness and his
fate with the same haughty contempt with which he had been
long accustomed to treat his fellow-men : during the violence of
the fever he caused himself to be conveyed from thence to Ausch
on the Pruth, but be soon became unable to endure the motion
of the carriage. He was therefore obliged to be lifted out of the
carriage and laid on a carpet on the grass, where he breathed
his last under the canopy of heaven on the 15th of October
1791, in the 55th year of his age. The peace was now speedily
concluded, respecting which Repnin and the vizier Tussuf had
been already long engaged in negotiations, and which was be-

176 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. II.

come absolutely necessary to the Russians^ in consequence of the
state of things in Poland. By the tenns of the peace^ signed at
Jassy on the 9th of January 1792^ Russia became mistress of tixh
whole country lying between the Dniester and the Bog^ and at
the same time remained in possession of the fortress of Oczakow*

§IV.

BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS,
a. BELGIUM.

In a previous part of this work we have given a detailed ac-
count of the first attempts made by the emperor Joseph to bring
the administration of the Belgian provinces into accordance writh
the necessities of modem times^ and the manner in which these
attempts were frustrated. The most distinguished public man
in Belgium^ who heartily approved and zealously endeavoured
to introduce the institutions and changes projected by the em-
peror^ and who therefore^ on the restoration of the old system^
was obliged to leave the country^ expresses his sincere regret^ as
we also do^ that Joseph in 1788^ when he gave up all other im-
provements^ continued to maintain and to enforce those which
related to ecclesiastical education^ discipline and instruction in
canon Islw^. He appears with us to believe^ that the liberal
portion of the Belgians would not have endured such a system
of canon law as that which was taught by the professors ap-
pointed by the emperor^ and would not hear of any kind of dog-
matics ; whereas the other party, which till the present day con-
tinues so papistical and the people so blind, would furnish no
ground on which any historical, dogmatical or philosophical in-
struction might take root ; and that moreover every attempt at
compulsion in matters of faith would only serve to call forth mar-
tyrs. De Berg commences his account of the renewal of distur-
bances in Belgium in the year 1789 in words which we incorpo-
rate in our text, because they furnish a brief and correct view
of the state of affairs immediately before the time of the tumult
in the general seminary : —

* In the following pages we avail ourselves largely of the memoirs and
documents of Ferdinand Rap^us de Berg, and especially of the second part
of the work.

§ IV.] BBIiOIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. l77

The episcopal seminaries^ he observes^ and the university of
Louvain were the sole causes of the new revolt, because they
alone continued to resist the reforming commands of the em-
peror, for in 1788 there was no longer any idea of a reform in
the administration and courts of justice. The council of Bra-
bant was fully restored to all its privileges, however incompatible
with the age and its demands they may have been ; and the go-
vernment was even extraordinarily fortunate in having replaced
the faithless chancellor in his office. The whole chaos of tri-
bunals for the regulation of real estates, corporations and eccle-
siastical affairs ; feudal courts, chambers of totdieuxy forest and
game laws ; the office of a general pr^v6t, of high bailiff, &c.
&c., were aU restored. The estates remained in possession
of the administration of the treasury in the different provinces.
The town-councils, as they had done before, seized upon the
rights of the royal officers, and these were either obliged to give
way or to make room for the opponents of the imperial supre-
macy. Franz von Paula de Beelen was in consequence ap-
pointed burgomaster of Brussels in February 1788, instead of
De Berg. The institution of the general seminary was the only
one in which the new arrangements were still maintained, and
the government directed its representatives to use all their power
and energy to uphold and maintain the institution in its then
condition. This course was pursued from a feeling of false
shame; the government was anxious not to relinquish every-
thing, and therefore had recourse to violence instead of again
trying new ways and means of success, or of again, by a word,
regaining the confidence of the country.

This passage, borrowed from the memoirs of a statesman
highly favourable to all Joseph's projected improvements, seems
to us to form the most suitable introduction to the history of the
disturbances excited by the priests in Belgium in the years 1788
and 1789, and fostered by Holland, England and Prussia.

As early as the year 1787^ before Trautmannsdorf, president
of the new civil government, and D' Alton, the new commander-
in-chief of the forces, had arrived, the students in Louvain and
the clergy in general used all their endeavours to effect the abo-
lition of the two imperial colleges in Louvain and Luxemburg,
after the disappearance of every other innovation. The German
professors who had been sent to Belgium had again commenced
their lectures, and the general seminary in Louvain was to be

VOL. VI. N

178 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

re- opened on the 4th of January 1788^ when an attempt was
made by the pupils of the Jesuits and the clients of the nobility
to prevent this occurrence. They first raised a clamour against
the German professors^ whose orthodoxy was beyond question^
but who propounded^ not the dogmatics of the Roman ponti£b,
but the catholic dogmas of the general councils, and maintained,
not the papal rights, but those of the general church and its
hierarchy. The imperial professor of canon law was therefore
abused and insulted, first on the 8th of December 1787^ snd re-
peatedly afterwards, not only by the orthodox students but by
the women and populace of the town. The archbishop of Ma-
lines, cardinal de Frankenberg, as ecclesiastical superior, was
called upon to put an end to this mischievous conduct, but he
paid no attention whatever to the demand. He even went so
far as to declare on this occasion, that whilst he by no means
approved of what had taken place, the disorders were in reality
nothing more than the manifestation of a just and pious dislike
towards teachers who only conceded the power of making laws
to the church and its councils and not to the pope. The cardinal
at the same time seized upon this opportunity of naming all those
professors who must undoubtedly be removed before any idea
could be entertained of the opening of the general seminary.
The clergy afterwards declared their unanimous agreement with
the archbishop*. These occurrences had just taken place, when
count von Trautmaunsdorf^ as new president of the civil govern-
ment, and general d'Alton, as military commander-in-chief in the
Netherlands, appeared, and from the very commencement seemed
to follow a totally different system.

A full account of the negotiations which were carried on with
the clergy of all ranks and with the university of Louvain during
the first four months of the year 1788, and the steps which were
taken in reference to the opening of the theological lectures^
which was insisted on by the government and forbidden by the
ecclesiastical authorities, will be found in De Berg's < Memoirs' ;
we must however pass over the details. We shall only remark
in general, that the disputes with the university of Louvain, and
consequently with the clergy, led to disturbances in all the towns
of Belgium in the former half of the year 1788, and to dis-
agreements with the estates of Brabant. This commencement
could not do otherwise than lead to most injurious results in
* See Schlozer's ' Staatsanzeigen von 1790/ 4r Band, 5a. Heft, a. 2B.

§IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 179

consequence of the totally opposite system acted on by Traut-
mannsdorf and IV Alton. These two high officers of state were far
from being agreed in their own views ; each of them afterwards
attempted to defend his own opinions through the press^ and
each vehemently and publicly complained of the other. At the
very outset Trautmannsdorf wished to delay the opening of the
general seminary for three months, in hopes of calming the public
feeling on the subject, but to this the emperor would not listen ;
ly Alton again on his part recklessly fired on the citizens of
Brussels, who gave public and clamorous expression to their
dissatisfaction with the emperor's attacks upon their priesthood.
The emperor was as little able to resolve to acquiesce in IHAl-
ton^s military severity as to yield to TrautmannsdorPs views of
concession. Rap^dius de Berg, who at the emperor's desire had
received a place in the council of Brabant, is of opinion that
there were only two advisable modes of proceeding; either
wholly to give up the project, or at once to have recourse to
ly Alton's severity. Trautmannsdorf s middle way could lead
to no good results.

In the beginning of August 1788 the imperial government at
length seemed disposed to act with vigour, and the episcopal
seminaries of Antwerp and Malines were closed on the 2nd.
This led to scenes of blood in both cities, and was further the
occasion of numerous arrests in the principal towns, especially
in Brussels. On the 8th the advocate Van der Noot, who was
the leader of the mutinous citizens, and at the head of the cor-
poration of Brussels had a fearful power at his command, as
well as other fanatical leaders of the populace, were to be arrested ;
Van der Noot however found means to escape, because Traut-
mannsdorf had recourse to a miserable subterfuge to avoid ar-
resting him at the proper time. All the measures of the emperor
were impeded by the well-known disagreement between the
highest officers of the executive, by the timidity of the civil
governor, on whose recall D'Alton insisted, and who personally
disapproved of everything which he was required to execute, and
by the disloyalty of Crumpipen the vice-president, who acted
more for the interests of Van der Noot than for those of the go-
vernment, and was more attached to the priests than to the
emperor. At last the third estate in Brabant also gave fresh
public evidence of their dissatisfaction with the government.

The two higher estates of Brabant had been prevailed upon

n2

180 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II,

on the 2l8t of November 1788 to sanction the usual taxes {le
stUfride, PimpSt, Paccise et un demi vingiihnepour la cour). The
third estate however (the representatives of the self-elected ma-
gistrates); which was guided by public opinion in Brussels,
and which again was formed by the instructions issued by Van
der Noot from Holland, refused to agree to the chief taxes, and
granted only those for the maintenance of the archduchess and
her husband, probably with a view to draw a line of distinction
between the orthodox Christina and her husband and the hete-
rodox emperor. The same course was pursued in Hainault.
Trautmannsdorf regarded the whole affair as so serious that he
was desirous of proceeding instantly to Vienna, but when he had
gone as far as Mons he received orders, which he was imme-
diately to communicate to the committee of the estates. We
may form some opinion of Trautmannsdorf's disinclination to
execute the emperor's antipapistical commands, by knowing,
that at the very moment in which he received them, on the 15th
of January 1789, he was domiciled in the house of his sister,
who was a pious canoness of the noble foundation of St. Waudru
in Mons. He nevertheless communicated the imperial rescript
of the 7th of January to the committee of the estates of Brabant
on the 17th 5 the document was as follows: —

" Inasmuch as you have ventured to allow yourselves to re-
fuse me your sanction for raising the ordinary ta^LCs; which are
necessary and indispensable to the administration of the state,
you are no more to appeal to the Joyeuse entries by which I no
longer hold myself bound, since you have presumed to forget all
the duties incumbent upon you as loyal subjects.^^

The deputies to whom this communication was made imme-
diately demanded the calling of the general assembly of the
estates, to which afterwards not merely the short rescript of the
7th of January was communicated, but a much longer one,
which prescribed an entire remodelling of the institutions of the
country according to the plan laid down in its articles*. This

* Ferdinand Rap^diuB de Berg« ' M^moires et Documens^' &c. vol. ii. p. 141 .
" Le secretaire da comte de Trautmannsdorf remit an greffier an exemplaire
de I'ordonnance ci-apr^ portant publication de la d^p^che de sa majesty aax-
^tats de Brabant du 7 Janvier 1789. Joseph par la gr&ce de Dieo, &c. &c. (le
grand titre) ayant ordonn^ de faire ex^cuter sans d^ai les dispositions con-
tenues dans la d^p^he que nous avons trouv^ bon d'adresser sous notre royale
signature le 7 Janvier de la pr^sente ann^ 1789# aux ^tats de notre duchi de
Brabant, communique k ces ^tats dans leur assemble g^n^rale le 26 du
m^me mois, et dont le teneur est, comme auit." Here follows the rescript

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 181

royal rescript however was only carried into execution in Hain-
ault by military force ; in Brabant^ where the two higher estates
succeeded in procuring the usual levy of the taxes for six months^
its operation was in the meantime suspended by a rescript dated
the 15th of February.

During the early months of the year 1789 everything ap-
peared quiet^ notwithstanding the internal dissatisfaction and the
cabals of Van der Noot and his confederates^ till the clergy and
the students began to excite commotions ; in June however^ and
therefore contemporaneously with the opposition of the French
estates to their king, new disturbances broke out. Up till this
time the estates of Brabant had voluntarily, and those of Hain-
ault compulsorily yielded obedience to the commands of the em-
peror. Although there was some murmuring, and individuals
occasionally protested, yet the taxes were raised without oppo-
sition, and the other provinces had not been invaded either in their
laws or privileges. The estates of Luxemburg and Limburg had
even voluntarily resolved to grant in perpetuity to the emperor
those taxes which they had hitherto been in the habit of voting
yearly under the names of ordinary and extraordinary supplies ;
and although the guilds in Brussels were engaged in constant
conspiracies against the emperor, and were guided by Van der
Noofs correspondence, yet as a whole everything even in Brus-
sels may be said to have been quiet. The disputes with the uni-
versity and the clergy alone continued, when the emperor laid the
foundation for, and gave rise to new discontents among the mem-
bers of the council of Brabant and the estates by a rescript pub-
lished in the beginning of May ; he required tibiat both should
agree to and approve of an altered representation of the third
estate ; and on this occasion also the government, that is^ Traut-
mannsdorf and Crumpipen, again played a double character. On
the one hand they made known the emperor's commands and did
not fail to display apparent symptoms of activity, whilst on the
other they secretly supported the hierarchs and aristocrats to
whom they belonged. D' Alton therefore was quite right, when,
on the 21st of May, he wrote to the emperor as follows : —

"There can be no doubt that the present disturbances are
caused by the council of government itself, because its members
seem to make it their constant concern to cause every system to

given in the text ; it then proceeds : — " Nona avons d^clar^ et ordonn^, d^Ia-
rons et ordonnons." And then follow the ten articles above referred to.

182 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

make shipwreck which might in any way interfere with the in-
fluence and power which they have assumed to themselves. I
am even of opinion, or rather have good ground for believing,
that everything which happens is expressly communicated to the
opposition party, and that on the publication of the government
ordinances its opponents receive leading instructions as to the
manner in which the ordinances may be opposed. The abbots,
with whom most of the members of the government are inti-
mately connected, to whom they are under substantial obliga-
tions, are still allowed to remain in their situations ; they rouse
the people to rebellion, and take no pains to conceal, but rather
make a boast of their own disobedience.'^ M. de Berg, who
has recorded this paper, it is true, expresses his approbation of
this letter, but we think not as unconditionally as he ought to
have done ; his opinion however is very different with respect to
the threatening proclamation issued by Trautmannsdorf on the
Srd of June 1789 : — ** A proclamation of this description is one
of those documents which serve best to characterize the system
of Trautmannsdorf as minister plenipotentiary. He was con-
stantly in the habit of having recourse to exaggerated threats,
which he had not the least inclination to carry into effect, but
which he was indeed sometimes compelled to execute, in order
to avoid the disgrace of contradicting himself. Even in such
cases he only acted by halves, because he regretted that he had
threatened at all. Moreover, he continually used the military as
an instrument of terror, but was never willing to apply the
means when any question arose requiring active interference.
In this way the military were either objects of hatred or even
contempt, and the soldiers became degraded in their own eyes and
therefore demoralized.'^ Such is the language of the only high
officer of government in whom Joseph should and might have
placed unconditional reliance ; and it furnishes us with the best
connexion of the following events, and enables us easily to ex-
plain the success of Van der Noot and his confederates, as well
as the failure of all the imperial designs.

The estates of Brabant, as well as those of Hainault, as has
been already related, in the beginning of the year tore asunder
those bonds by which they were united to the empire, by refusing
to grant the usual supplies, without which neither administration
nor government could exist ; the emperor had therefore declared,
that. in consequence of their having violated the ancient and

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOL.UTIONS. 183

existing order of things^ he was obliged to introduce new regu-
lations and to enforce their observance by power. This had
really taken place and been carried into effect in Hainault; in
Brabant milder measures had been pursued by virtue of the
rescript conceding a period of delayi because the two higher
estates had actually taken steps which rendered it possible that
it might eventually prove unnecessary to have recourse to mili-
tary power. This provisional condition however, to which the
government assigned half a year, during which the usual taxes
were raised, must necessarily reach its goal, and some final reso-
lution must be formed before the termination of the allotted
period. In the beginning of the month of June (on the 6th)
the emperor therefore sent two documents to the general go-
vernment, the second of which was only to be made public in
case the estates of Brabant should reAise to accede to those
changes in their constitution which were submitted to them in
the first* The emperor's proposals were laid before the estates
by Trautmannsdorf on the 18th of June, and he used all his in-
fluence to induce them to enter into deliberations and negotia-
tions respecting them. In his communications he gave the
estates to understand that the emperor was not disposed to in*-
sist upon the unconditional acceptance of his proposals* instead
of their ancient constitutioUj but was inclined to hear, consult
and negotiate with the estates on the subject.

The estates, not without good reason, were suspicious ; they
refused to enter into any negotiations whatsoever respecting the
existing constitution, and consequently compelled Trautmanns-
dorf to come forward with the second document, with which he
was provided against this eventual decision. The discussions
respecting the imperial rescript continued during the whole of
the 18th of June, but as early as three o^clock in the afternoon

* According to the emperor's proposids^ sU the other towns of Brabant were
to be represented in the estates, a privilegs which had been hitherto enjoyed by
the cities of Louvain, Brussels and Antwerp alone, whose peculiar interests were
often different from those of the conntr)' at large. Further, constant and suf-
ficient supplies were to be provided for meeting the necessary expenditure of
the state m Brabant* as was done in Flanders. Thirdly, in the diets each
estate was to deliberate and resolve in a separate chamber, but a simple ma-
jority was to decide, and the refusal of one estate was not to render invalid
the consent and approval of the other two. Fourthly, the council of Brabant,
as a court entitled by the Joynue entrie itself to confirm the imperial ordi-
nances, should confirm all ordinances which were not contradictory to that
document, and in cases of difficulty were directed to send their representations
to the goyernment of the province.

184 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

a very considerable military force had been assembled in the
square before the Hotel de Ville. The estates having continued
firm in their resolution, Herr von Kiilberg, councillor of state
and director of the chancery, appeared in the assembly at seven
o'clock in the evening and read the imperial decree to its mem-
bers, by virtue of which the rescript of the 7th of January was
forthwith to be carried into effect by force of arms. The whole
assembly were then compelled to leave their hall, their papers
and documents were seized upon and sealed up by the royal
commissioners, the minutes of all their proceedings since the
year 1786 were torn out of their records, and the system recom-
mended by D' Alton was then for the first time vigorously pur-
sued. The desired end however could not be attained in this
way, because it was counteracted by Trautmannsdorf ; the em-
peror Joseph had diminished the number of his troops, whose
services he needed against the Turks ; and the jealousy of the
other powers, even of the German princes, would not have suf-
fered the march of large bodies of Austrian troops into the
Netherlands. The Belgian malcontents had long before opened
up communications and entered into an understanding with
IVussia, the hereditary stadtholdress of Holland openly favoured
their cause, and the English ministry secretly fomented the spirit
of resistance ; the malcontents therefore were suffered to collect
their adherents on the frontiers of Brabant, and Van der Noot
to form a revolutionary committee in Breda, which entered into
diplomatic relations with the emperor's enemies. At the same
moment also the affairs of the general seminary of Louvain were
again brought forward, and an opportunity was thereby given to
the archbishop, supported by the whole body of the clergy from
the pulpit, in the confessional, and by innumerable writings, to
warn the people against those schismatic doctrines which the
emperor was attempting to force upon them through the instru-
mentality of the new theological professors in Louvain and their
disciples.

The proceedings and incidents which, from the 18th of June
till the middle of July, were preparatory to a formal insurrec-
tion, and the manner in which Trautmannsdorf, by his conduct,
inspired the emperor's opponents with courage, may be seen in
detail in De Berg's ' Memoirs.' An accidental circumstance led
to the first tumult, in itself insignificant and contemptible. There
was a brewer named Windelinckr, who, having been banished on

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 185

account of having been concerned in former disturbances^ had
received permission from the mayor of his town to return to his
birth-place ; on the 22nd of July^ as he was coming out'of the
church; he was arrested by a brigadier of the mounted gens
d'armes; who was accompanied by six gens d'armes and twelve
men belonging to the regiment of Ligne^ then in quarters at
Tirlemont. Windelinckr was thrown into prison^ and this caused
his firiends to summon together some hundreds of peasants from
a village in the territory of Liege with a view to effect his libe-
ration. The peasants obeyed the call, presented themselves, set
the prisoner at liberty, and committed acts of violence of every
description.' Whilst these excesses were going on in Tirlemont,
the originators of the tumult caused the tocsin to be sounded in
all the villages around, in order to draw the whole body of the
peasants to the scene of action. In Tirlemont, Diest and other
places, great mischief was perpetrated, and the peasants were
afterwards compelled to return to order ; but similar disturbances
broke out simultaneously in Mons, Louvain and Antwerp, and
D^Alton gave rise to general discontent in Brussels, by the
manner in which he attempted to prevent the outbreak of an
insurrection by force of arms. On the 28th of July he caused
some twenty young people who were singing patriotic songs in
a public-house to be seized upon and carried off, and proposed
to send them forthwith through Namur and Luxemburg to the
Hungarian army. This circumstance excited general displeasure,
and Trautmannsdorf, who was always ready to do the very re-
verse of what D'Alton recommended, gave ear to the public
complaints, caused the young men to be brought back from Na-
mur to Brussels on the 11th of August, and delivered them to
the city courts, which pronounced their acquittal, and added that
there was no ground of complaint against them.

The counteracting measures adopted by the two heads of the
imperial authorities, the disinclination of the native judges, offi-
cers and authorities to punish any of their promoters, gave rise
to disturbances and excesses throughout all the towns and vil-
lages of the country, so that crowds of country people and mobs
of ruffians engaged in numerous acts of robbery and violence.
Great numbers of able-bodied peasants and vagabonds assem-
bled on the territories of Holland and offered their services to
the committee in Breda, at whose head were Van der Noot and
Van Eupen. The former regarded himself as a great diplo-

186 FIFTH PBRIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH« II.

matist^ applied to the powers allied against the Turkish war, and
was at least secretly listened to in Holland^ Prussia and England,
which had entered into a close alliance since the expedition of
the duke of Brunswick. As early as May 1789 he took a jour-
ney to the Hague, and on the 8th of that month had an inter-
view with the grand pensionary Van Spiegel, of which he has
given a full and official report in his collection of documents
relating to the revolution in Belgium*. The most important
circumstance connected with this document is the proof which
it «ffi>rds that the government of the hereditary stadtholder
should enter into diplomatic relations with persons like Van der
Noot and Van Eupen, who were the leading men of the com-
mittee in Breda, and that the grand pensionary should give them
hints as to their manner of proceeding in order to secure sup-
port from England, Holland and Prussia. In accordance with
these views the Dutch ambassador negotiated with Herzberg in
Berlin, but Van der Noot took a journey to England to no pur-
pose, for Pitt was too prudent to enter into communication with
him ; he therefore left that to Van Spiegel and the hereditary
stadtholdress, although Van der Noot at this very time assumed
to himself the pompous title of agent plen^oientiary qf the
people qf Brabant. In the end of August Van der Noot was in
Berlin, and the Dutch ambassador prevailed upon Herxbei^g,
who unwillingly acceded, to give him a verbal promise, that if
the Belgians succeeded without foreign aid in driving the Au-
strians out of the Netherlands, and the hereditary estates of the
country, not Van der Noot^s revolutionary committee, should
then apply to the king, he would probably pay attention to their
application. The chief point was now to profit by the services
of those who were collected in the territory of Holland, drilled in
the use of arms, and formed into a kind of revolutionary militia ;
for the accomplishment of this object. Van der Noot and Van
Eupen were obliged to have recourse to the services of colonel
Van der Mersch, as they themselves were totally unfit for mili-
tary undertakings.

Contemporaneously with Van der Noot's diplomatic journeysi
another advocate named Van der Vonck turned his attention to

* Bisum^ des Negotiations qui accompagn^rent la Revolution des Pays-
Bas Autrichiens, avec les Pieces justificatives, &c., Amsterdam, 1841. Tliis
document is also to be found word for word in De Berg's ' M^moires et Do*
cumens,' vol. ii. pp. 164, 166.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBTOLUTIONS. 187

reformS) and used all his exertions to effect a revolution in Bel-
gium in accordance with the vieM's of the constituent national
assembly of France, and without flying from the country, or
making any public demonstration, quietly to overthrow the exist-
ing government* It was impossible to realize his views, because
he was at the same time opposed to the monarchical principles
of the emperor and to the hierarchical and feudal prejudices of
his countrymen. He however formed a party who have been
called Vanckists, in reference to which, as well as to the revolu-
tion in Brabant, the most important materials are to be found in
a book published by Vonck himself, first in Flemish and after-
wards in bad French*. Van der Noot was at first unwilling to
form any connexion with Vonck ; Van der Mersch however, who
had served as a colonel in the Austrian service, but afterwards
resigned his commission and lived on his estate in Flanders, be-
came a convert to Vonck^s opinions, Uke him did homage to the
principles of Lameth and Lafayette, and offered to put himself
at the head of the people who were assembled in the territory of
Liege. The republican society organized by Vonck to defend
their altare and homes {pro aru et focis) induced great crowds
of able but ill-armed men to assemble on the Belgian frontiers,
where they were drilled and organized as well as possible by Van
der Mersch, who since the beginning of September had entered
into a close alliance with Vonck. As early as the end of Septem-
ber, Van der Noot also united his committee with that of the
Vonckists, and made incursions into Brabant $ the mob how-
ever which Van der Mersch had collected in Liege for the most
part left the district and fled into the Dutch territoxy, as soon
as a hundred of the imperial troops presented themselves in
any direction. The imperial authorities did not determine upon
recourse to force in the interior of Belgium till everything was
ready for the insurrection and it was too late to adopt such
means. Very numerous arrests were made, but Van der Vonck
himself escaped disguised as a priest, and on the 18th of October
succeeded in joining Van der Noot and Van der Mersch in
Breda.

The invasion of Belgium, which Van der Mersch ventured to
make on the 24th of October, at the head of the numerous but

* Abr^g^ Historique, servant d'introduction aux consid^ations impartiales
sur r^tat actuel de Brabant, par M. Vonck. Traduit du Flamand et augment^
de plusieurs notes. A Lille chez Jaques^ imprimeur libraire^ sur la petite
place.

188 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

cowardly and useless Belgian rabble which had been drawn to-
gether in Holland^ would undoubtedly have failed^ Uke its pre-
decessors^ had it not been for the imprudence of the Austrian
generali Von Schroder. This undisciplined rabble^ whose number
amounted at most to 5000 men^ without any artillery and mostly
without uniform^ was led across the Belgian frontiers by Van der
Mersch^ who then for the first time allowed arms to be distributed
amongst them^ and published a manifesto previously prepared in
Breda^ in which, with obvious reference to Van der Noot's di-
plomatic negotiations, the independence of Brabant was an-
nounced. Every one laughed at the expedition, because no one
could conceive that the Austrians would make such an unskilful
use of their army as they really did, seeing that their forces,
making allowances for those in the occupation of the different
garrisons, still amounted to 16,000 men. The number of the
undisciplined and cowardly throng under the conduct of Van
der Mersch, as they marched through Hoogstraten to Tumhout,
did not amount to 3000 men. They advanced in two divisions^
one of which could not be restrained from flight before they had
seen the enemy, and the other boasted the more because they
were afterwards victorious.

Van der Mersch advanced without interruption to Tumhout.
On the 26th, general Schroder, in Malines, received the news of
the occupation of Tumhout by the insurgents, but he was not
aware that Van der Mersch was reinforced and the whole popu-
lation of Tumhout under arms. On this occasion Schroder com-
mitted a great military error ; it is true he obeyed D' Alton's
commands to attack the enemy as soon as possible, but he over-
looked the recommendation which was added, first to give him
an account of the position and strength of the malcontents and
then wait for further orders. Schroder had hoped to fall in with
Van der Mersch on his march from Tumhout to Diest; the
latter however had retired into the small town, spent the whole
night in digging trenches across the streets, and caused all the
outlets of the place to be barricaded. The entrance to the town
was only partially closed, as well as the various accesses to the
public square, where Van der Mersch had stationed his chief
force, 1600 men, in the churchyard and the town-house. The
rest of his force was scattered about in the houses by the way,
behind the garden hedges, and at loopholes or broken walls in
the streets. Schroder should have surrounded the city, but he

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS* 189

imprudently fell into the snare prepared for Iiim in the town^
although his guides^ whom he had forced into his service, had
escaped. He was first detained in the town by the people con-
cealed in the houses and cellars and behind the hedges and walls,
who kept up a continual fire upon his men from windows, roofis
and loopholes, and then compelled them to retreat. The loss
sustained by the Austrians in this unfortunate attack upon Turn*
hout would have been easily repaired, for they left only one
cannon in the hands of the enemy and not more than 100 men
killed or wounded, but the consequences of the victory gained
by this miserable army of Van der Mersch were incalculable.

Whilst Van der Mersch remained in Tumhout and fully occu-
pied the attention of the body of 7000 Austrians, which D* Alton
was able to employ against him under the command of lieu-
tenant-general von Arberg, Van der Noot and his committee in
Breda were preparing an insurrection in Flanders, in which
Ghent alone would be able to furnish a power in favour of the
new republic, and the second column of Van der Mersch's army
was designed to support the insurrection in Ghent. Van der
Mersch and his followers being again driven completely out of
Brabant, this small army marched to Flanders on the 4th of
November, where it was reinforced by some Walloon deserters
and provided with cannon and standards by the liberal duchess
d'Ursel and other persons of distinction, whilst there were only
two battalions of imperial troops in the city. Afler numerous
delays, fears, and many attempts to desert, the trembling Bra-
banters at length reached Ghent. The Austrians at first ofiered
them a brave resistance, and the cavalry of the insurgents, con-
sisting of a very few men, among whom were prince de Ligne
and Devaux, fled with uncontrollable precipitation and spread the
news of their complete overthrow through the whole of the pro-
vince; the numerous population of the city however having
taken up arms, the imperial troops which occupied the streets
were obliged to withdraw. Von Lunden, who commanded the
troops which had been sent against the rebels, certainly main-
tained his ground on the Place d'Armes till the evening, and
when it became dark also reached the quarter of St. Peter's, but
he was there cut off firom all connexion with the garrison pro-
perly so called, which occupied the citadel under the command
of Von Arberg. Von Arberg was unable to cannonade the town,
because he had no one who could properly direct the guns, and

190 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

the common artillerymen were all drunk; and Von Lunden
made a vain attempt to force his way through the streets of the
city, now in open insurrection, and to join the troops in the cita-
del. On this occasion, the violent soldiers, by the cruelties which
they perpetrated, enraged the minds of the inhabitants against
the imperial government, and Von Lunden was at last obliged,
in consequence of want of provisions and ammunition, and after
a hot engagement for three hours, to lay down his arms on the
16th of November.

A close examination of D' Alton's military measures and those
of his staff would probably tend to throw the whole blame of
the insurrection in Flanders upon the commander-in-chief; but
from the time of Lunden's capitulation in Ghent, Trautmanns-
dorf destroyed even that which D' Alton made good. Without
informing D'Alton, he entered into direct correspondence with
Von Arberg, and commanded him to evacuate the citadel on the
night between the l7th and 18th of November, which was as
much as to command him to suffer himself to be beaten. The
various divisions of the Austrian troops in the other towns of
Flanders were also cut off, and in Brabant Trautsmannsdorf
obviously promoted the insurrection which he wished to sup-
press, by an unseasonable recall of all that he had formerly de-
creed in the name of the emperor*, and by the manifestation of
an exaggerated sense of danger, the result of his fears. Previous
to these events, when the insurrection spread in Brabant, the
estates of Flanders on the 23rd of November had adopted a
republican constitution and declared themselves independent t;
Hainault had completely thrown off its allegiance, Namur in
part, and Limburg was about to imitate their example. This
was the work of the three powers who had now entered into
formal diplomatic relations with the committee in Breda, in
order, as their diplomatists express it in the documents pub*

* He published edicts on the 20th and 2l8t, on the 25th and 26th of No-
vember^ by which the constitution was again restored, the general seminary
abolished, and a general amnesty and relinquishment of all military measures
were promised.

f The estates declared the supreme rights of the emperor to be forfeited,
resolved to renew their union with Brabant, to propose a confederation of all
the provinces of the Netherlands, to raise an army of 20,000 men in Flanders,
to declare the council of Flanders to be a sovereign tribunal, to appoint depu-
ties to purchase munitions of war, and to elect deputies to constitute an execu-
tive committee ; at the same time they threatened the government in Brussels
with making reprisals upon the soldiers and imperial officers for the cruelties
perpetrated by Von Arberg on the citizens of Ghent.

§ IV.] BBLOIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 191

lished hj Van Spiegel in 1841, ^to profit by the criiis in the
Austrian Netherlands in a manner suitable to their common in-
terestsJ^ It was not quite impossible for count von Cobenzl,
who was sent from Vienna for tiie purpose, to effect any recon-
ciliation ! he came too late, because Van der Noot, Van Eupen,
the archbishop of Malines, the abbot of Tongerloo and their
creatures could no longer think of a reconciliation with the em-
peror Joseph. In the meantime also Van der Mersch had rallied
his columns, which had been driven back into the Dutch terri-
tory, again commenced the war, and proved more fortunate
than before, because the Walloons deserted to his standard, not
merely individually but in troops, and the Austrian command-
ers exhibited an incomprehensible degree of incapacity. Van
der Mersch moreover entertained different views from those of
the advocates and priests in Breda, and therefore had con-
cluded a suspension of arms for eight days with D' Alton ;
the conditions of the truce were not sanctioned in Breda, — ^it
was nevertheless observed, — till the signal of revolt was given
by the capital in Brahant as had been previously the case in
Ilanders.

The committee in Breda, and especially Van der Noot, who
was all-powerful in Brussels with the guilds, had taken all the
necessary means to cause a general insurrection in Brussels ; as
early as the 8th of December 1789 various circumstances oc-
curred, which proved that the inhabitants of the capital only
awaited the signal to fall upon the Austrian government and
troops. It will be seen from the passage of M. de Berg's ' Me-
moires' given in the note, that portions of the Austrian garrison
of Brussels began to desert as early as the 9th, and that many
of the soldiers were corrupted'*^. Thursday the 10th of Decem-

* De Berg. M^m. et Docain.» vol. ii. pp. 427, 428 : " Le 8 D6c. on vit des
femmes^ des enfana, et puis des jeunes gens, des hommes se mettre k combler
les foss^, k briser les chevaux de frise, k en faire des feux de joie dans les
rues ; qnelques militaires voulurent s'opposer k cette operation, ils furent hu^
par la populace ; le capitaine Trager» du g^nie, fut frapp6 d'un coup de fer par
un perruquier dans la rue Magdaleine. Ce nouveau triomphe des patriotes
acheva de d^moraliser le soldat. La desertion qui jusqu'alors ne s'etoit faite
que par petitcs troupes de quatre k cinq hommes h la fois, commen9a k se pra-
tiquer en grand, par pelotons, par compagnies enti^res. Le g^n^ral d'Alton^
toujours mal inspir^, avoit loge dans les convents les troupes qui ^toient r^-
cemmeat revenues de Louvain. Ce fut une occasion de les s^duire, on les fit
boire, on lea enivra, on leur dittribua de Targent. Dans la journ^ du 9 cin-
quante grenadiers sortirent k la fois du couveut des dominicaina avec armei et

192 PIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

ber was one of those ecclesiastical fSte-days in which the power
of the clergy over the minds of the faithful is usually the
strongest. On this day of solemn piety and repentance for Van
der Noof s guilds, and for that portion of the people who think
they do God service by running barefooted through the streets,
as happened on this occasion, and accompanying the long ranks
of the processions into the churches, the whole of the people
were assembled in the sacred edifices, when, immediately after
high mass, the signal for rebelhon was given. The concerted
signal was, ^^Long live Van der Noot and the patriots/^' The
moment the signal was given, those who were in the secret
mounted the Brabant or the present Belgian colours, and distri-
buted them to all who were present. Immediately afterwards
every one appeared decorated with this emblem, — the sign of
the Belgian declaration of independence, which the men wore on
their hats and the women on their breasts. The military were
assembled, it is true, but it was not thought advisable to pro-
ceed to extremities ; and no steps were taken till the danger of
plunder and murder on the part of the populace became so im-
minent in the evening, that Trautmannsdorf at length con-
sented to a measure, from which D'Alton used all his efforts to
dissuade him. The arms which had been taken from the citi-
zens were again restored to them, to enable the city guard to
preserve and maintain public order. On the morning of the fol-
lowing day it was resolved in the council of state, that the govern-
ment should retire from Brussels to Namur on the 12 th, and
take with them the public moneys, which amounted to 2,000,000
of florins ; Trautmannsdorf and two secretaries alone were to re-
main in Brussels. On the afternoon of the 11th, however, col-
lisions took place between the Belgians distinguished by their
cockades and the Austrians, and blood was shed. D'Alton now
ordered the soldiers to iire on the people, and attempted to main-
tain himself in all the posts of the city, but in the evening he
was driven completely out of the lower town and obliged to con-
fine himself to tibe maintenance of the upper town and the Place
Roy ale. On the 12th he was again attacked. The Austrians
defended themselves with courage, and on this occasion used

bagages, criaDt dans les raes qu'ils allaient k Tarm^e patriotique et ammenant
avex euz les gardes des portes de la vlUe. Dans la nuit da 9 au 10 deux cents
autres suivirent cet ezemple."

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 193

their artillery also ; but the very circumstance of more than a
thousand men having gone over to the patriots in the last two
days proves that it was quite impossible for Brussels^ with about
6000 demoralized Austrians^ to be maintained against a nume«
rous body of people, the armed citizens and the deserters incor-
porated with them. Attempts were nevertheless made to sup-
press the tumult, and Trautmannsdorf succeeded in effecting a
truce and a temporary agreement ; D' Alton however knew be-
forehand that this would lead to nothing, and hostilities were
again actually renewed about noon. Whole crowds now began
to go over to the patriots ; half a company of the Ligne regi-
ment immediately took their place in the ranks of the patriots
and fired upon their former comrades. D' Alton therefore con-
cluded a mere military armistice, and retired with such of the
troops as still remained ; whilst Trautmannsdorf continued to
delay and hope for reconciliation, till he also was at length
obliged to withdraw with the last of the troops in order to avoid
being taken prisoner.

The cities of Louvain, Malines, Namur and Antwerp were
all immediately afterwards evacuated by the Austrians, who
marched direct to Luxemburg ; and as early as the 14th Van der
Mersch made his entry into Brussels. The public treasure,
which, according to their previous resolution, was to have been
removed, fell into the hands of the Belgians, in consequence of
which ly Alton was to be tried by a court-martial ; he died how-
ever before his trial could take place. All this was the work of
the advocates, priests, hierarchs, and friends of feudality and the
middle ages who were assembled in Breda, and at whose head
Van der Noot made his entry into Brussels on the l7th. Prus-
sia, Holland and England were desirous of using Belgium as
well as Poland as a bugbear to the Russians and Austrians, and
then leaving them to their fate ; and now, in order to obtain the
long-promised protection of these powers, on the advice of Van
der Noot and other diplomatists of his stamp, the independence
of the Netherlands was proclaimed as early as the 13th, and the
estates were summoned to meet on the 29th. The estates im-
mediately adopted the title of " The high and mighty estates of
Lower lArrraine^ Brabant, and the marquisate of Antwerp" As
early as the 28th Limburg also joined the hierarchical and feu-
dal confederacy, the foundations of which were the guilds and
corporations of the citizens, organized in the spirit and after

VOL. VI. o

194 FIFTH PERIOD«-^FIBBT DIVISION. [OH. II.

the manner of the middle ages. There was therefore no neces-
sity for any lengthened deliberations respecting the constitution
of the new republic of the Belgian united provinces, for this had
been already formed in the middle ages, and recognized the pope
as a supreme legislator. The oath of fidelity to the union was
administered and taken on the last day of the year 1789. We
should think it a disgrace to receive into the pages of a general
history the details of the history of this ephemeral Belgian re-
public, which was the work of Van der Noot, Van Eupen and
other such persons ; and in what follows we shall merely touch
upon those points which are in some way connected with the
history of the French revolution.

On the recall of Laudon the command of the Austrian troops
in Luxemburg devolved upon field-marshal Bender ; this force
consisted only of 10,000 men, and was therefore wholly unable
to undertake any decisive measures against the insurgents, who
in a pamphlet published at that time in Brussels were called
'^ those high-minded citizens to whom the Belgians were indebted
for their freedom^^ as long at least as the revolutionists were
supported by Holland and England. The nature of the free-
dom thus called Belgian will be best understood from an enu-
meration of the names given in the paper referred to*; and this
will be still clearer, when we remember that cardinal von Frank-
enberg was appointed president of the congress of deputies
which met in Brussels, and were sent as representatives from
Flanders, Hainault, Namur, Toumay, Malines and OuelderS*
(that is Roermonde), and that he was associated with such men
as Van der Noot and Van Eupen. The nature of this congress
must be obvious to all those who are acquainted with what has
been and continues to be the course of events in Belgium in our
own times ; it was, in fact, the representative of the majority of
genuine and true Belgian catholics, who are obliged to exclude
every ray of reason in order to remain orthodox, and to obstruct
every description of progress which produces no pecuniary ad-

* This pamphlet, conBisting of twenty-three pagee, was printed in BruBMls
in 1790» under the title " Qu'allons nous devenir/' &c. It contains the names
of Van der Noot, Vonck, Verloog, Torfs, t'Kint and Le Hondt, all advocates ;
of the abbots of Tongerloo and St. Bernard ; Fiser, architect and inspector of
buildings in Brusseb ; and of die trading classes, Sagersmanns, Weemaels,
D'Aubremez, &c. &c. Van Eupen was called " Secretary of State qf the Co»-
federacy," after the fashion of Van der Noot, who now bore the title of "Agent
PhmpfUetUwry if the Belgian nation/'

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. 195

vantage, in order not to be diaturbed in the enjoyment of their
traditionary customs. In accordance with this principle, the
congress commenced its operations with the immediate discou-
mgement and even persecution of all liberal views, and of those
defenders of the political economy of the new age who had been
called into life in the Netherlands as well as every place else by
the French revolution, and among whom were members of the
high nobility. All such persons were included under the name
of Yonckists, and among the rest was general Van der Mersch,
who had rendered the greatest services to the cause of the revo-
lution and was still at the head of a military division.

The aristocracy of Belgium were not long in perceiving that
their condition had been much better under the feeble govern-
ment of the Austrian high nobility, which Joseph would not
endure, but which Leopold restored in all the hereditary states
in 17 W, than under the dominion of Van der Noot, the abbots,
and the guilds and corporations of the cities. The last-men-
tioned party placed themselves completely in the power of the
cunning English, Dutch and Prussian diplomatists, by whom
the charges d'affaires of the new priestly republic were re-
ceived in the Hague and in Berlin, in order that they might
pretend to negotiate /or them, but in reality concerning them, in
Beichenbach. This was obvious to almost all at the time $ it
was only such narrow-minded and self-sufficient men as Van der
Noot and Van Eupen who could mistake the fact ; otherwise
they would have withdrawn in March 17^0 from all connexion
with foreign diplomatists and have entered into negotiations im-
mediately with Leopold himself. The archduchess Christina
and her husband, duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, who were at the
head of the government of the Netheiiands, were now in Bonn :
Leopold had no sooner imdertaken the government of the here-
ditary states, and shown himself to be the restorer of all that
was ancient and obsolete, than Christina and Albert caused an
otkr to be made to the people of the Netherlands also, in the
name of the new ruler, of the restoration of their former privi-
l^es and constitution, and of placing everything upon the old
footing; but at this very moment the advocates and priests
hoped to be able to secure for themselves unlimited power. At
the very moment in which the proposal was made they had just
gained a complete victory over the liberal party, which was sup-
ported by persons of great power and wealth, such as the duke

o 2

196 PIPTH PERIOD. — PIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

d^ Aremberg, the duke and duchess d'Ursel^ count von der Mark,
viscount Walkiers and others; they were therefore afraid of
rivals, and after the steps which they had ab*eady taken, of the
vengeance of those whom they had persecuted when again re-
stored to power. Walkiers^s corps was disbanded, he was obliged
to seek his own safety by taking refuge in Ghent, and all con*
nexion with the irreligious liberals, whom no priestly govern-
ment could endure, was forbidden under the severest penalties ;
and Van der Mersch had been removed from his command.
Van der Mersch set his enemies at defiance, and with the help
of his friends in the army attempted to maintain himself in Na-
mur against their power; he was however dismissed, afterwards
confined in the fortress, and general Schoenfeld, a creature of the
two ruling advocates, was appointed in his stead. The proposals
and ofiers which were made from Bonn having been declined,
the Austrians in Luxemburg made war upon the new republic ;
but the hostility of the Austrians was far less injurious to them
till the conclusion of the convention of Reichenbach, than the
protection of those powers which had been brought upon them
by the diplomacy of Van der Noot.

The ambassadors of the three powers then in the Hague drew
up protocols similiar to those which have been written in London
in our own times respecting Belgium and Greece, to the destruc-
tion of both ; and as soon as the Reichenbach convention was
signed, Herzberg issued a declaration by no means favourable
to the new republic, by virtue of which the three powers ex-
pressed their desire to maintain the ancient condition of things
unaltered*. The diplomatists moreover would too willingly

* This appears to us to be the meaning of the declaration made by Herzberg
on the command of the king ; — that the king had united with the two naval
powers, England and Holland, who had become guarantees of the constitution
properly belonging to the Austrian Netherlands, and were parties to the treaty
of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, by which the possession of the provinces pre-
viously belonging to the Spaniards in the Netherlands was transferred to the
house of Austria, in order to consult upon the future destiny of these pro-
vinces. The king in full concurrence with these powers would always pursue
such measures in reference to the future fate and constitution of the Austrian
Netherlands as were calculated to restore these provinces to the domimon of Au-
stria, upon the guarantee of the latter for a general amnesty and the means to
be employed, and as would secure their ancient constitution to these provinces,
to be guaranteed by the naval powers. Joseph Ewart and baron von Reede, re-
spectively for England and Holland, declared on the very same day, that Uieir
governments would engage for the fulfilment of the obligations entered into by
Prussia, and were ready to send plenipotentiaries to a congress for peace, in
order to undertake the duty of mediators.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 197

have seen the dominion of their protocols much longer extended
in the Netherlands^ and Van der Noot and Van Eupen might
have long continued to rule under their protection had not their
companions and themselves been too bUnd^ and the military
force which they had got on foot too contemptible. The powers
proposed to send ambassadors, who were to regulate the Belgian
afiairs on the spot by means of protocols, or rather were to put
them into confusion ; but Van der Noot and Van Eupen began
their management so badly, that the Austrians in Luxemburg,
^ having received considerable reinforcements during the months
of August and September, had resumed partial possession of the
country before the protocoUing and mediating ambassadors had
arrived. The Belgian army was under miserable commanders,
and many ofScers resigned their commissions from vexation and
disgust, and the arming of the people which was ordered by
Van der Noot and Van Eupen led to nothing ; nevertheless the
progress of the Austrians in the month of September and during
a part of October was retarded, partly by their usual systematic
tediousness and partly by the protocols issued from the Hague.
At this time, lord Auckland, the grand pensionary Van Spiegel,
and the Prussian ambassador count Keller, had met in a diplo-
matic congress in that city.

On the 17th of September the congress insisted that the Bel*
gians should agree to a suspension of hostilities, whilst the con-
gress proceeded to settle their affidrs by protocols ; and Van der
Noot on the other hand insisted that an immediate attack should
be made upon the Austrians by the whole Belgian force, before
the troops of the former then in Luxemburg should be strength-
ened by the reinforcements on their march. The whole of the
Belgian leaders were in favour of a suspension, but Van der Noot
succeeded in procuring a decisive rejection of the proposal on
the 5th of October, because, as he said, he knew with certainty
that the mediating powers at Reichenbach had conceded all those
points to the Austrians in which he and his adherents never
could acquiesce. Notwithstanding this, the allied powers by
means of ministerial notes prevented the Austrians from march-
ing upon Brussels, which they would have been able at any
moment to reach. They not only waited till the beginning of
October for the submission of the Belgians, but Leopold, nine
days after his coronation as emperor of Germany, in consequence

198 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. 11.

of an agreement with the congress in the Hague^ fixed the 21st
of November as a new and peremptory limit to the Belgians.
It was indeed determined that the republic and its name should
disappear^ that Van der Noot and his confederates should be de-
prived of all influence^ but in other respects everything was to
be restored to its ancient condition^ and a full amnesty granted
to all those who should again voluntarily acknowledge the impe-
rial government *.

During the negotiations^ which were prolonged from August
till November^ the imperial court quietly came to an under-
standing with those classes of persons to whom the old^ feeble
imperial government was more acceptable than the tyranny of
the priests and corporations, and at the same time with all those
who abhorred the name of a republic^ and shrunk back with
horror from the contemplation of the scenes which had taken
place in France. Even military Russia and the aristocratic go-
vernments of England and Holland were by no means displeased
that the republicans furnished them with an opportunity of sur-
rendering them to the vengeance of the obscurists, with whom
Leopold had surrounded himself. The imperialists were now
ready for action, and the period for decision almost elapsed,
when the party of Van der Noot, on the 20th of November,
made an attempt at the eleventh hour to create a monarchical
and no longer a republican Belgium, but independent of Austria.
They elected the archduke Charles for their prince, an election
which only served to make them more ridiculous than they had
been before. On the day succeeding this election the time for

* On the 31st of October, the ministers in the Hague declared to the Belgian
plenipotentiaries, that it now depended upon the Belgian nation alone, whe-
ther they would have the restoration of their legal constitution, as it existed in
its ffreatest purity before the commencement of the preceding reign, as well as
of all their religious and civil privileges, and a complete oblivion of everything
which had taken place during the recent disturbances. The ministers nirther
declared, that in this they not only spoke the feelings of the emperor, but that
his minister at the Hague, the count Mercy d'Argenteau, approved of all the
points contained in the present note, and was ready to confirm them by an
especial manifesto in the name of his monarch. At the conclusion came the
chief point : — " CMy one-and-twenty days longer would be given to the nation
to declare their acceptance of these conditions. In case they allowed this pe-
riod to elapse without coming to a decision, or should in the meantime give
occasion to any new hostilities, the plenipoteniiariea declared they could no
longer determine the fate qf the Netherlands, and that those who through their
obstinacy were the causes qf the mischiefs to which the nation must faU a sacrifice
would have to answer for the consequences."

§ IV.] BELaiAN AND POLISH BKVOLUTIONI. 199

decision was expired ; the Austrians advanced, the Belgian army
melted away, and the estates of Namur separated and facilitated
the inarch of the Austrians to Brabant.

The Austrians, under field-marshal Bender, now reinforced,
and amounting to 32,000 men, marched by way of Namur to
Brussels without meeting with any hindrance or obstruction.
On the 1st of December Van der Noot and all the rest of his
repubUcan confederates and members of congress fled finom the
country, and the whole of Belgium was again occupied by the
Austrians. On this occasion cardinal Frankenbeig, archbishop
of Malines, showed himself to be as admirable a statesman and
diplomatist as his colleague Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, proved
himself to be during the whole of his life. The cardinal had
fomented and guided all the disturbances, gone hand-in-hand
with Van der Noot, presided in the republican congress, and yet
pn the 12th of December 1790, precisely a year after the ex~
pulsion of the Austrians from Brussels (December 12th, 17B9),
he appeared among the most enthusiastic friends of the house of
Hapsburg. He was the very man who celebrated the solemn
Te Deum^ which was sung on the above-mentioned day, for the
suppression of the insurrection which he himself had caused and
for the restoration of the Austrian dominion. The triumph of
ancient principles over every species of innovation in Belgium
was proclaimed with loud rejoicings by count Mercy d'Argen-
teau, as soon as he arrived in Brussels (January 4th, 1791) with
full powers firom the emperor. No suspicion was entertained,
that by the annihiktion of this legal and clerical republic the
number of friends to the French revolution would be increased,
just as the Prussians, four years before, never suspected that they
would render the hereditary stadtholder an object of hatred by
the expedition of the duke of Brunswick to Holland. The num*
ber of Belgian refugees and malcontents in Paris became very
considerable, and like the Dutch refugees, they kept up a cor*
respondence with their friends at home, and in 1792 they facili*
tated the conquest of Belgium by the French, as the Dutch did
that of Holland in 1795. The case was so similar in Liege,
which at that time belonged to the Gterman empire, that we must
briefly turn our attention to the disturbances in this eoclesiaA-
tical principality.

In Liege, as well as in most of the other spiritual states, the
citizens enjoyed the ancient rights and privileges, of which they

200 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. II.

have been completely deprived in all the German temporal sove-
reignties from the time in which their princes began to surround
themselves with mercenary troops and vagabonds recruited from
the rabble; they were obliged however to maintain a conti-
niud strife and lawsuits on the subject of their rights with the
bishop. As early as the year 1684, when the troops of Louis
XIV. were in possession of the country^ the bishop availed him-
self of the aid of the French to deprive the nobles of most of
their privileges and to extend the prerogatives of the hierarchy.
The nobles indeed brought their complaints before the imperud
courts^ but the pedants who then constituted the tribunal were
not accustomed to bring any cause to a speedy determination,
and the courts were so constituted and the proceedings so ar->
ranged, that many were never decided ; this was the case in the
complaint made by the nobles of Liege against the bishop and
his chapter : advocates, procurators, agents, and all the officers
of the courts were enriched by delays ; juristical doctors and pro-
fessors in the universities wrote dreadfully learned books in folio
and quarto ; but ^ Liege versus Liege' continued to be a standing
cause, not only before the imperial courts but also at the diet in
Ratisbon, which was indefatigable in consultations and assiduous
in protocolling, but which never came to any conclusion. The
country people and citizens also were at strife with the bishop, and
finally lost all patience when the self-willed Constantine Franz
began to treat them as if they were the property of his church,
and that too at the close of the. eighteenth century. The nobles
had waited in vain for a decision of the court for many decen-
nia, and the citizens became incensed when^they saw themselves
likely to be involved in the same labyrinth, and they therefore
had recourse to the law of nature, then recognised in France, in
opposition to the documentary and parchment law of the jurists.
Feelings of enthusiasm in &vour of the regeneration of Eu-
ropean politics, such as was announced in France by the most
vehement democrats, were at that time so general in the territory
of Liege, that even children and women became fanatical on the
subject. As a proof of this, we only require to remind our read-
ers, that Th^roigne de M^court, first renowned for her beauty
and afterwards notorious for her licentiousness, went from Liege
to Paris when she was only a very young girl : as is well known,
she has gained for herself a species of immortality by her parti-
cipation in the storming of the Bastille, and afterwards in all

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. 201

the dreadful scenes of the revolution, because her wild enthu-
siasm and her maddening speeches were used to excite to deeds
of desperation in cases in which reasonable men shrunk from
appearing. We can therefore have no difficulty in explaining the
fact, that the inhabitants of Liege found it easy, only four weeks
after the storming of the Bastille in Paris, to get up a similar
scene in the capital of their spiritual tyrant. The citizens of
Liege became at last weary of wandering with the assessors of
the imperial court through the deceitful paths of laws, which we
must unhappily call German, and therefore on the l7th of Au-
gust 1789 they had recourse to arms. The countiy people from
the neighbourhood poured into the city in streams, formed a
union with the citizens, deposed the city magistrates appointed
by the bishop, chose new ones, and compelled the bishop to
confirm their choice.

The bishop fled to Treves, there recalled all the concessions
which he had been forced to make, and in his turn lodged his
complaints with the imperial court. This tribunal of nobles was
ready to deal out a very difierent measure of justice to the rulers
and the ruled : it came to a speedy determination, and made an
offer of the bayonets of the empire in favour of the priests. The
execution of their decree against Liege was to be carried into
effect by the troops of the elector of Cologne and the bishop of
Miinster, together with those of the elector palatine and the king
of Prussia as duke of Cleves. These indeed, according to ancient
traditionary German usage, obeyed the decree with great slow-
ness and circumspection. The troops of Prussia and the Pala-
tinate did not advance into the territories of Liege till the end of
November, and those of Miinster took up their quarters in Lux-
emburg on the firontiers of Liege, in order to be ready to execute
by force whatever might be resolved on by the commissioners ap-
pointed by the three princes. Among these commissioners the
representative of Prussia had the greatest weight, for the king
had caused 7000 men to be sent on this occasion. Neither Von
Schlieffen, the commander of the troops, nor the noble-minded
and wise Von Dohm, the commissioner, were disposed to deceive
the confidence of the Liegois, who had applied to Prussia from
fear of Cologne, which was under the dominion of a priest, and
of the Bavarian Palatinate, which was governed by the slave
of priests. Prussia was very far indeed from conceding to the
priests a sovereignty to which they were not entitled, as was

202 FIFTH PEBI0D.-^FIB8T DIVISION. [0H« II.

done by Miinster and the Palatinate. Dohm suggested and re-
commended mediation and amnesty^ whilst the bishop and his
companions in Cologne and Miinster^ as well as the imperial
court, which for centuries had emulated the councils of Brabant
and Castille in the maintenance of usurpations, demanded punisb-
ment and unoonditianal subjection.

It will readily be supposed that the case gave rise to the ex-
change of innumerable and copious papers, because for centuries
there was no more attractive field open to the German jurists^
publicists and court scribes; the bishop himself corresponded
with Herzberg. In the course of this correspondence between
an orthodox and pious bishop and a minister who professed the
religion of Frederick II., the former entailed upon himself as
much disgrace as the latter obtained great and well-merited
honour from all those by whom good actions are regarded as of
more value than dead faith. The proof of this assertion will be
found in the printed documents themselves. Prussia did not on
this occasion suffer herself to be employed as the instrument of
oppression, but declared that she would have nothing more to
do with the affair, and withdrew her troops in the beginning of
April, which constrained the Palatinate to follow her example.
The latter was afterwards desirous of returning in connexion
with the contingents from Miinster, but they were not equal
to the Liegois, and only brought disgrace upon themselves and
an empire, which was not in a condition by the usual means to
execute its own decrees, but was obliged to have recourse to a
miserable pettifogging trick, in order to induce the emperor
Leopold, who was the defender of everything ancient and obso-
lete, to mix himself in the afiair. It was shown on this occasion
that it was a mistake to suppose that the times were gone in
which it was possible for the united power of a people to enter
successfully into competition with the new institution of merce-
nary soldiers ; for it appeared that this was only true in cases of
tumults and insurrections of the populace and masses^ but not
of a well-organized militia composed of the people, animated and
stimulated to action by a conviction of the truth and justice of
their cause. The imperial court, being imbittered and enraged
at the defeat of their mercenaries, had offered the whole German
executive power, consisting of the Palatinate, Miinster, Mayence,
Wiirzburg and Wiirtemberg contingents, and last of all, those of
the circle of Lower Saxony, to maintain the cause of the bishop

§ lY.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTION8. 20S

and his chapter, the members of which belonged to the same
estate as the assessors of the imperial court; but the whole of
this miserable combination of contingents fought with the in-
surgents from April till December without success, suffered nu-
merous defeats, and were often driven by the Liegois far beyond
the frontiers of the bishopric.

The war was carried on by the estates of Li^e with an army
fiur superior to that of the empire ; at length the elector of Ma-
yence himself felt, that right was on the side of the estates of
Liege; he therefore induced the king of Prussia to undertake the
office of mediator, and after some conferences in Maseyk, an
agreement was concluded respecting the preliminary articles,
which were to be guaranteed by the whole electoral college.
Before the three estates of Liege in the beginning of November
showed any disposition to be satisfied with this determination,
they had several times made applications to the French national
assembly, and even as late as October, both in writing and by
deputies ; this was quite enough of itself to draw down upon them
the resentment of the emperor and of all the enemies of innova-
tion. They finally agreed to accept all the articles of Maseyk,
but with this reservation, that the bishop, who was again to be
restored, was to redress their complaints and to secure to them
the firee choice of the civil magistracy. This however was de-
clined by the bishop, who had entered into a secret understand-
ing with the emperor. The conservators of all those abuses,
which during the middle ages had become rights by virtue of
parchment and seals, and who held their court in Wetzlar, now
drew forth a new instrument of destruction from their legal
armoury, to be employed in favour of the bishop and the chap-
ter, llie imperial court having to no purpose offei^d the aid of
the circles which have been already mentioned, bethought them-
' selves that the Belgium recently re-occupied by force had once
been called the circle of Burgundy, and they now made an ap-
peal to the emperor, as the only prince of this circle, to support
the army of execution with his troops. After consultation and
agreement with the bishop, the emperor lent a favourable ear to
this appeal on the part of the judges in Wetzlar, and field-mar-
shal Bender immediately united his troops with those of the
useless army of execution, in order to restore the bishop to his
power.

The first consequence of this kind of imperial justice was, that

204 PIPTH PERIOD.— PIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

the imperial court inflicted the punishment upon the inhabitants
of the city and territory of Liege, which was really due to the
bishop and his chapter. In January 1791 Liege was occupied by
a superior force of imperialists and Austrians, and on the 11th of
February the imperial court decreed that the oppressors were to
receive a million of florins from the oppressed. Count Metter-
nich, whose family had the largest interest in livings and stalls
connected with all the German sees and in the election of bishops,
next granted permission to the bishop about to be restored to
issue a proclamation, whose effect must have been to turn away
the hearts of all from any regard to the rotten German empire,
and to lead them to look with hope to the French, who did despite
to feudality and all hierarchal tendencies and ideas. On his re-
turn on the 13th of February 1791, the bishop had the shame-
lessness to take possession of the country and people as the
property of his church, and that by virtue of a proclamation di-
rectly contrary to that law of which he and the court in Wetzlar
boasted as German law. Immediately afterwards, as an ecclesi-
astic, he instituted a series of persecuting measures by the instru-
mentality of his tribunals and police, such as were resorted to
nowhere in Europe except by ecclesiastics in the states of the
church.

Severe punishments were not only inflicted on the originators
of the disturbances and those who were concerned in them, but
domiciliary visits were made to every man of liberal opinions,
and above all to writers for the public, and absent persons were
summoned and their properties confiscated. These measures led
to an increase of fermentation among the people, precisely in the
same manner as the same effects are produced at the present day
by conduct of the same description in the papal states. The
bishop of Liege was obliged to retain imperial troops in his ter-
ritory, precisely as the pope at present is constrained to found
his hope of the continuance of his temporal power on the prox-
imity of Austrian forces. The refugees of Liege joined the Bel-
gian patriots in Holland and France, kept up an uninterrupted
correspondence with their countrymen who were oppressed by
the priests, threatened the rear of the allied armies as early as
September 1794, and at the close of the year returned hand-in-
hand in triumph together with the repubUcan French.

During the most violent scenes of the revolution in Paris, we
constantly find the refugees of Liege and the expatriated Vonck-

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 205

ists among the most active participators, and as early as the
18th of December 1791^ when the war between France, Prussia
and the emperor was threatening to break out, they offered their
military services to the French. They were desirous, as they
said, of forming a distinct legion in the French army, consisting
wholly of inhabitants of Liege, even when the prospect of a war
was still distant.

b. POLAND.

Russia had become a guarantee for the maintenance of that
article of the constitution which was passed into a law in the
year 176S, and by virtue of which every single member of the
noble estate could invalidate by his veto the resolution of all the
rest. By the instrumentality of this law, Russia contrived to
maintain her dominion over the disunited grandees and the king-
dom. It was very easy to prevail upon some one member of
the nobility to act as a mere instrument of the foreigners, and
by interposing his veto, furnish them with recurring opportuni-
ties for interfering in the internal affairs of the country. Great
care was therefore taken that this most injurious custom and law
should be also received into the constitution forced upon the
Poles in 1775 • The chief direction of all the most important
af&irs having been once entrusted to a permanent council, the
king became completely powerless and the diet a mere tool, be-
cause, although this council pretended to act only in concur-
rence with the king, it reaDy overruled his will, and consisted of
persons who were merely Russian creatures. This body was not
influenced by the pleasure of the king, but guided solely by the
instructions which it received from the Russian minister. A
single vote, and therefore any evil-disposed person, or one who
might be sold to the enemies of his country, was able to invali-
date any resolution which might be agreed to by the whole body
except himself, and consequently insurrections and the confede-
rations connected with them became in reality the only means
of carrying through any project whatsoever. In every confede-
ration the principle of the majority of votes was recognised, and
by virtue of such a union,, even when the particular had not
become a general confederation, a resolution could be obtained
from a diet. A confederation at first indeed was formed by the
union of single members of the noble estate, but afterwards it

206 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIR8T DIVISION. [CH. II.

usually soon embraced whole circles, waiwodeships and pro^
vinces ; and after having been united by a formal act, appeared
in the diet as a unity. By means of such a confederation-diet
in 1776, the Russians succeeded in establishing the permanent
council, and by means .of the council the permanence of her do-
minion ; and in consequence of the form of government then
introduced, none of the succeeding diets, till 1788^ were able to
come to any resolution worthy of mention. In the year 1788
there at length appeared to be some reasonable hope of shaking
oflF the power of Russia.

The king and the Russian party in Poland themselves gave
occasion to a confederation, but they failed in the attainment of
their object, which was to induce the Poles to enter into a union
with Russia against the Turks. The king, who is praised by
Oginski in the style of Lacretelle, S^gur and other Frenchmen
for qualities which we do not dispute, by his journey to Kaniow
and his conduct towards Potemkin and Catharine, had at that
time completely lost the respect of all those who had any stand-
ard for the value of a king and a statesman except that of the
saloons. By this standard alone Oginski measured the elegant and
gallant Stanislaus, the protector of all the splendid arts, when he
lauded* him in the language and spirit of Lacretelle and S^ur,
whose nothingness is unhappily too conspicuous in the history
of all the subsequent events. Although the noblest spirits of the

* Oginski, haviog lauded the king in his memoirs as the protector of the arts
and sciences, continues : "At that period Konarski organized schools for the
poor, and improved the methods of instruction. Bohomolec published a
learned perio(Ucal, composed plays for the Polish theatre, and struggled agaii\st
the prejudices of the people. Krasinski, who was a most delightful poet of
various talents, criticised, entertained and instructed. Wengierski wrote severe
satires and embodied bitter truths in clever and witty verses. Kopczynski
composed a grammar and reduced language to determinate rules. Naruszewicz,
renowned as a poet and historian, translated Horace and Tacitus, and whilst
he selected the former as his model, raised himself as a historian to the rank
of the second. Trembecki could have gained for himself the first place among
the poets of the time of king Stanislaus had he been less indolent and some-
what less of a courtier. The learned Albertrandi, a distinguished antiquarian,
was sent by the king to Rome and Stockholm with a commission to collect
materials for a history of Poland, and enriched the archives of the country by
several hundred volumes of valuable MSS., all of them written with his own
hand. There were the astronomer Poczebutt, the naturalist Strzicki, Sina-
decki, Skrcztuski, Wyrwicz, Staszick and Koilontay," &c. And then he pro-
ceeds to enumerate others as heroes of the saloons and perfect masters of
conversation and manners: "there were Joseph Poniatowsky, Ignacius and
Stanislaus Potocki, Czartoriski, Sapieha, Malachowski, Mostowski, Weyssen-
hof, Niemcewicz aiod Matuscewicz. Sed ohejam satis superque est !**

§ IV*] BELGIAN AND POLISH ABVOLUTIONB. 807

Polish nation were indignant that their king had conducted him-
self like the slave of Potemkin, by begging for favours from the
empress^ which she partly granted and partly refused^ Stanislaus
hoped to be able to persuade the Poles that they could only de-
liver themselves from Prussian oppression through the aid and
instrumentality of Russia. Frederick II. and his minister Herz-
beig were determined to force the cession of Thorn and Dan-
zig ; they kept both these cities and the whole neighboiurhood
in a state of fear and anxiety^ and nothing but Russian inter-
ference had hitherto saved them from their grasp, or appeared
to be able to prevent the continuance of Prussian oppressions.
That portion of the Poles which was sold to the Russians were
desirous of availing themselves of this condition of things to
bring about an alliance with Russia against the Turks. They
acknowledged however, what the Russian minister also admitted,
that this could only be effected by means of a diet, and that the
diet could only be made an instrument of the Russians by what
was called a general confederation. In a general confederation
the power of an individual (the liberum veto) became null, and
everything was decided by a majority of votes. The parties were
by no means agreed respecting the manner in which this was
to be accomplished, for a freely- formed general confederation
appeared both to the Russian ambassador and the poor soul of
the king, a thing in itself by much too dangerous.

Felix Potocki recommended a confederation, which was to be
formed according to circles and waiwodeships, before the assem-
bling of the diet, whilst the Russian ambassador and his humble
servant the king required that it should only be formed during
the diet, and emanate from the permanent counciL The latter
opinion prevailed, and a diet was summoned for the 30th of
September 1 786. This occurred at the very time in which a close
alliance was formed between England and Prussia against the
views of Joseph and Catharine ; Prussia therefore immediately
declared her determination to resist any alliance between Russia
and Poland against the Turks, and a Prussian army appeared on
the frontiers of Poland. From this moment the patriotic party
in Poland felt themselves in a condition, by a union with Prussia,
to counteract all the projects of the king, who was disposed to
favour Russia, of the Russian ambassador, and of the permanent
councii which depended on him.

The permanent council and the Russian ambassador soon per-

208 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

ceived that they had miscalculated when they supposed that they
could prevail upon the electoral assemblies to give the deputies
whom they elected such instructions as were calculated to pro*
mote their own views. They had instructed the assemblies to
commission their representatives to demand a confederation^ the
reinforcement of the army^ and a radical improvement in the de-
partment of finance; whereas the electoral assemblies merely
instructed their deputies to insist upon a reformation of the con-
stitution j and to effect a deliverance from the Russian guarantee
for the maintenance of the old one. After the elections^ not only
the Russian ambassador but the marshal of the kingdom, pro-
posed by the king and the Russians, declared that a confedera-
tion formed by the permanent council could not be suffered to
take place. Malachowski, who was selected to be marshal of
the kingdom, demanded, that in case it was their desire he
should undertake the office proposed, they must necessarily wait
for the institution of a confederation, and till the marshal was
elected in the usual way in a free diet held without a confedera-
tion; and secondly, in order to put an effectual bar to every
species of cabal, it should be expressly declared that the confede-
ration had no other object than to make it possible in the diet to
decide questions submitted for discussion by a majority of votes,
and without the liberum veto. This was the meaning of Mala-
chowski's demand, which was couched in the foUowing language :
'^ The marshal cannot allow any chamber of confederation or any
power to be holden with a view to sanction particular enactments,
but all decisions in the diet itself must be determined by a ma-
jority of votes.^* This principle having been conceded, the future
confederation, even before the opening of the diet, was delivered
from the power of the king and the Russians, who w*ished to use
it as the mere instrument for effecting their designs.

The diet was opened on the 6th of October, Malachowski
chosen as marshal of Poland, and Sapieha of Lithuania ; and as
early as the I7th the confederation declared, or rather resolved,
that all motions and decrees should be decided by a majority of
votes. The confederation was not on this occasion the work of an
insurrection, but was equally demanded by the Russian and the
patriotic party, both of which were agreed upon the necessity
of harmony. On the 12th of October a note signed by the
Prussian minister Von Buchholz, and powerfully seconded by
Hailesj the English representative^ was handed in, in which the

§ IV.] BBLOIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 209

accusation brought agunst Prussia of endeavouring to \('in over
Polish towns or provinces was absolutely denied, and a united
protest was made at the same time against the formation of any
new alliance between Russia and Poland. The king of Prussia,
according to the declaration of his minister, had nothing to sa j
respecting the increase of the Polish army, but he warned them
not to employ it against the Turks ; and in case any force should
be attempted to compel the Poles to the adoption of such a course,
he offered to conclude an alliance with them, and to give his
guarantee for the preservation of the integrity of the kingdom of
Poland. The resolutions of the diet were completely in accord-
ance with the expectations of Prussia ; it renounced every idea
of an offensive alliance with Russia, and, relying upon the aid
and protection of Prussia, entered upon its deUberations respect-
ing those reforms, the necessity of which was most obvious.

The diet first agreed to the augmentation of the army to
100,000 men, and in order to oi^anize this army, erected a new
council of war, which was made independent of the king and the
permanent council. This was the first step towards the abolition
of the permanent council, which was a creature of the Russians,
and coordinate with or superior in authority to the king. On the
3rd of November a resolution was passed, that, instead of a per*
manent council, the sittings of the diet itself should be declared
permanent. This step roused the attention of Stackelberg the
Russian ambassador, who handed in a note on the 5th of No-
vember, which contained a threatening declaration, and concluded
with these words : ^' As to the idea of establishing a permanent
diet, and in this way overturning the constitution hitherto ex-
isting, my duty imposes upon me the necessity of declaring,
that the empress would feel great pain in relinquishing her feel-
ings of friendship for the king and her connexion with the illus-
trious republic, but that at the same time she must regard any
alteration whatever of the constitution of 177^ as & breach of
the existing treaties and relations between the two powers.'^
This note, and still more the tone in which it was written,
awakened, it is true, strong feelings of displeasure towards the
ambassador; but the Poles were still more incensed at the con-
duct of the king, who, in a servile speech, ventured to recom-
mend to the diet the same spirit of concession to Russia by which
he himself was degraded. The Prussian ambassador, who wished
to employ the influence and power of the Poles in favour of the

VOL. VI. p

210 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

TurkSj in the same manner as the Russian was anxious to use
the same power and influence against them^ on the 19th of No-
vember handed in a declaration to the diet^ which was the very
reverse of that of the Russian.

** The king/* writes the ambassador, " has perceived with plea-
sure, that the illustriouse states, according to their well-established
rights, have placed the relation of the army to the government
on such a footing, by a public resolution in conformity with the
principles of the constitution of the country, as to secure the
independence of the republic, and to render it impossible to em^
ploy the military force of the nation for the promotion of any
particular objects, or to remove it from foreign influence.'* With
respect to the guarantee of the Russians for the maintenance of
the constitution of 1775, and the threats contained in Stackel-
berg's note, it observes : ** The king of Prussia feels himself
justified in expecting, from his knowledge of the penetration
and well-known firmness of the diet, that its members will not
suffer themselves to be deterred from the adoption of a resolution
which does so much honour to the correctness of their views re-
specting the future, by any warnings or allusions to the guarantee
of any particular resolutions previously passed, whatsoever they
may have been.*' From this time forward the Poles placed all
their hopes upon Prussia ; and the cabinet of Berlin, well know-
ing that on the next occasion they would be obliged to sacrifice
Poland to the Russians, sent Lucchesini, an Italian, instead of
an honourable German, as their ambassador to Warsaw. This
minister, who afterwards, till our own century, in connexion with
Lombard and Haugwitz, formed the triumvirate of the cabinet
of Berlin, which proved so injurious to Germany, and finally to
Prussia herself, then put in practice his genuine Italian diplo-
matic arts in Warsaw.

According to custom, the diet should have closed its sittings
with the year 1788 ; in spite however of the Russians, they had
been prolonged for an indefinite time. As early as January 1 789
the decisive step was taken for the abolition of the permanent
council, which had been imposed upon the Poles by the Russians,
but no further progress was made. Eight valuable months were
wasted in the delivery of well-set speeches, which, according to
the French fashion, were richly garnished with patriotic phrases ;
disputes were carried on concerning unimportant things, and a
very tedious judicial process was conducted with Sclavonian vio-

§ lY.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BRYOLUTIONS. 211

leace, so that no part of the real business of the state was at-
tended to or performed till the 7th of September^ except a decree
authorising an insignificant loan of 10^000,000 of florins for
Poland and 3,000,000 for Lithuania.

At length, on the 7th of September 17889 a resolution was
passed that a committee, or, as they expressed it, a deputation,
should be appointed in order to institute inquiries respecting all
the branches of the administration, and to prepare and submit
to the diet the draft of a new constitution. The committee was
then really named, and consisted of eleven persons, of whom five
were nominated by the king, partly ministers and partly senators,
and six by the chamber of deputies from their own number*.
Lucchesini, the Prussian minister, and the representative of En-
gland, now proposed an alliance, and took care that this ofier
should be made known to the diet; but at the same time they
made such a skilfiil use of the well-known diplomatic language,
that their courts were not, properly speaking, bound. Among
the eight articles which the committee afterwards published as
the preliminary types of the new constitution, it did not venture
to recommend the abolition of the principle of an electoral king-
dom and the introduction of that of a hereditary monarchy.
The plan itself met with the approbation of the diet, which en-
tered into negotiations with Prussia respecting a defensive al-
liance, and finally prorogued its sittings from the last of Decem-
ber 1789 till February 1790. Russia, being well acquainted with
the nature of the Prussian views respecting Poland, declared that
she had nothing to say against an alliance between Poland and
Prussia, and thus the real views of the cabinet of Berlin were
ciuiningly brought to light. Prussia declared, in fact, that the
conclusion of the alliance depended upon the cession of Thorn
and Danzig.

The patriots availed themselves of the interval of adjournment
in order to obtain those powers from the circles and provinces
by which they were deputed, which were necessary to enable
them to convert the diet into a national assembly. For this
purpose circulars were issued to all the provinces, districts and

* Those named by the king were Kransiaki, bishop of Kaminiec, Potocki^
marshal of Lithaania, Oginski, royal commander- in -clktef of Lithuania, Chrep-
towitz, vice-chancellor of Lithuania, and Kasaowski, vice- treasurer of the
crown. On the part of the deputies, Suchodolski deputy for Chelm, Moszc-
zenski for Braclaw, Dziatonski for Posen, Sokolowski for Jnowracslau, Wawr-
zecki for firaslau, and Weysaenhoff for Li?onia.

p2

212 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. II.

towns. In these letters the steps already taken by the diet and
the views entertained with respect to the future were explained,
and the deputies afterwards instituted meetings among them-
selves, in which they developed and explained their views, and
endeavoured to rouse the nation to a feeling of enthusiasm in
favour of a new life and a system of legal order. Prussia was at
that time (the commencement of 1790) about to engage in a war
with Austria ; but having afterwards thought of being able to at*
tain her ends at the congress of Reichenbach, at length intimated
that she would not insist upon the cession of Danzig and Thorn,
and the diet on the 15th of March 1790 then resolved upon con-
cluding the alliance. The alliance was really concluded fourteen
days afterwards, and six days after that ratified by the respective
powers. We learn from Oginski, that the high nobility, indeed^
were dreaming of a pompous, luxurious and splendid peerage,
somewhat after the English model ; and also that, instead of end-
ing, they commenced with the exhibition of their splendour; in-
stead of organising the whole nation in armed bodies by the
sacrifice of their wealth, and securing the means of keeping this
array on foot by unusual frugality, and thus preparing for the
impending war threatened by the Russians, they gave scope to
their folly ; and the chiefs of families who loved ostentatious, lux-
urious and vain splendour, pomp and extravagance, undertook
embassies to all the courts in Europe, where they exhibited their
splendour and contracted debts like sovereign princes. Among
the number of these ambassadors was Oginski, whose property
at this time was increased by an inheritance of 20,000,000 of
florins.

Oginski, in his Memoirs, is altogether wrong when he brings a
severe accusation against Herzbei^ for taking so little notice of
his Polish patriotism and enthusiasm. Herzbei^ was well ac-
quainted with the hypocrisy of the king and his relations ; he
knew that Branicki, who owed his immense fortune to treason,
and not like Oginski to inheritance, as well as Felix Potobki and
Rzewusky, were really in secret alUance with Russia and Austria,
and merely for appearance' sake pretended to be patriotic. The
Prussian minister knew that bishop Kossakowski, and even the
brother of the grand marshal chancellor Malachowski, were sold
to the Russians ; what value therefore could he attach to a con-
stitution which was betrayed and sold even before it was accepted ?
Instead of blaming Herzberg, Oginski should rather have done

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 213

him honour^ because, like an honest German noble, he did not
attempt to deceive him, in the same manner as Liicchesini did
the other Poles. Herzberg met with young Oginski in Breslau
(June 17^)9 and there distinctly informed him that Prussia could
place no reliance on the Polish enthusiasm, which would quickly
evaporate, and merely regarded the alliance with Poland as a
means of promoting Prussian objects*.

In the meantime the Russians and their adherents first availed
themselves of the pretence of respect for the law of 1768, and
afterwards they had recourse to every possible means to retard
the decision of the diet respecting the scheme of a constitution,
which their committee had laid before its members. The de<
putation had continued from May till September to bring one
chapter after another of the new constitution before the assembly,
till at length the whole ten were brought under consideration,
but none of them were found to contain any recommendation as
to the abolition of the principle of an electoral monarchy. On
the 24th of September 1790, the sittings of the diet were pro-
longed by resolution till 1791, and in the circulars issued for
the purpose of calling electoral assemblies, the nation was at last
asked, whether they would not wish to name a successor to the
king in his lifetime ? Fourteen days afterwards another question
was added to this, — whether it was not their pleasure to nominate
the elector of Saxony as heir to the throne of Poland? On the
9th of October a new missive was directed to all the palatinates
and districts, which were ordered to hold provincial diets on the
16th of November, and to take into consideration the printed
scheme of a new constitution, as well as the question concerning
the nomination of the elector of Saxony as heir to the throne.
The whole of these provincial assemblies (with the exception of
three or four) left everything connected with the constitution
unconditionally to the diet, without binding their deputies by
any instructions whatever ; all of them except Volhynia readily

* Offinski, in his Memoirs, part i., writes as follows : " All the questions
which he put to me respecting the diet at Warsaw, the opinions which he pro-
nounced upon some of the most distinguished men of Uiis assembly, his dis-
pleasure at the obstructions thrown in tibe way of a commercial treaty between
Poland and Prussia, convinced me that he entertained no good feeling towards
the Poles. He was only concerned to make the alliance, in order to follow up
the system which he had commenced, of weakening Austria, of securing Thorn
and Danzig for Prussia, and yielding to the impulse of the English cabinet.
With this view, Ewart, the English minister, incessantly importuned him, and
supported himself on the necessity and advantages of an Anglo-Prussian
alliance."

214 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVIBION. [OH.II.

acceded to the proposal of declaring the elector of Saxony suc-
cessor to the throne of Poland.

The Russian party succeeded in causing great delays^ by in-
sisting that the law of 1768 expressly prohibited them from
making any change in their fundamental laws^ without unanimity
on the part of the diet. This difficulty was no sooner surmounted^
by the repeal of this law, than the clients of the Russians hoped
to protract the decision till the termination of the Turkish war, by
engaging in endless debates on every article of the constitution.
The patriots escaped from this snare by a resolution of the diet,
that the votes should be taken not on each article in particular^
but on the whole together, in such a way that whatever was not
approved by the diet should be referred back to the committee
to make the necessary alterations. Two disputed points were
however immediately decided, one relating to the form of the
assemblies, the other to the demands of the towns. Having
agreed on these points on the 24th of March 1791, it was also
resolved that the superintendence of all the officers of the execu«
tive power should be entrusted to the king and the council of
state. The king and the council were also to be entrusted with
the duty of summoning the diets, and taking all those measures
which might be provisionally necessary for the well-being of the
state.

These tedious consultations of the diet were prolonged for
two years, at the end of which the circumstances were altered.
Herzberg's influence was weakened by the obscurists and cabals ;
Bischoffswerder and the cabinet triumvirate, whom we shall have
frequent occasion to mention hereafter, began their game at
Berlin in connexion with the king's mistresses. The diet more-
over had unnecessarily offended Herzberg and the king by de-
claring its determination not to cede any portion of the Polish
territory (that is. Thorn and Danzig). The Poles having per-
ceived when it was too late that their decision had been too long
delayed, the committee very suddenly and unexpectedly laid
their scheme before the diet for its acceptance on the 2nd of May
1791. The king, who at that time was singularly ostentatious of
his patriotic enthusiasm, eagerly insisted that the committee
should immediately submit their plan under the title of a resolu-
turn respecting the form of government. On the evening of the
2nd the scheme was first read in the Radzivil palace before the
patriotic members of the diet, to the exclusion of the others^ and
was received vnih unbounded applause ; and the very same night

§ IV.] BBIiOIAN AND POLISH BBV0LUTI0N8. 215

it was signed in the house of Malachowski, marshal of the king-
dom. On the 3rd the diet was assembled for the solemn accept-
ance of the constitution ; thousands streamed from all directions
to rejoice at the near-approaching regeneration of Poland^ the
annihilation of anarchy and the complete abolition of foreign rule.
On this occasion, the powerful members of the diet, who had sold
themselves, and the Russian ambassador, had recourse to every
possible means which chicane and evil inclinations could suggest
to prevent the passing of the resolution. They in &ct succeeded
in protracting the decision of the question respecting the adop-
tion of the plan recommended by the committee for several
hours.

During this sitting the king played the character of a patriot
in such a masterly manner that the whole assembly were in rap-
tures, and he became an object of wonder and admiration in
every part of Europe. On that day the spectators no longer
looked on the king as the mere head of a court and as a master
of the polite arts, but as an enei^etic statesman ; and yet at
that very time he was nothing more than a good comedian ! He
made a speech to the assembly with a view to recommend the
immediate and unanimous acceptance of the proposed plan;
and the majority having at ^ength required him to dose the de-
bate, he commanded the bishop of Cracow to read before the as-
sembly the oath to the new constitution. He himself first took
the oath, and then by his addresses, encouragement and example,
he gave rise to a theatrical scene of patriotic enthusiasm for na-
tional regeneration similar to that which was enacted in Paris on
the 14th of July on the Champ de Mars. He rose from his
throne, preceded the assembly, who all followed him in procession
except twelve dissentient members, passed through the covered
passages of the palace, and thus conducted them into the high
church. The oath was then again solemnly administered upon
and at the altar, and ratified by a high mass and the rejoicing
of thousands, who had assembled in and around the church ; the
signatures to the new constitution were first to be formally and
solemnly attached on the 5th of May.

On this occasion, bishop Kossakowski, who ought to have sub-
scribed first in the character of president of the committee, who
drew up the plan of the constitution, clearly showed that he and
his compeers had only been intent on deceiving and betraying
the patriots. According to the order prescribed by the diet, it

216 FIFTH PERIOD. FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

was his duty first to subscribe the new constitution^ as well as
other laws passed by the diet; he declined however on this oc-
casion, and had recourse for his justification to the subterfuge,
that he and the committee, whose president he was, could not
with propriety subscribe any law which, like the drafl of the
constitution, was passed by the majority merely as a whole, but
upon the single articles of which no definite conclusion had been
adopted. They were only required or permitted to subscribe,
when, as president and deputation, they were expressly entrusted
with this duty by the diet, and had received full powers for the
purpose. Means were immediately taken to remove this diffi-
culty. Malachowski, marshal of the diet, had scarcely proposed
and afterguards thrice repeated the question, whether the diet
was ready to issue its commands to the deputation^ and give
them full powers to sign the constitution drawn up by the com-
mittee and sworn to on the 3rd of the month, in the presence of
the two chambers of the diet, when Kossakowski's hopes, which
rested on the opposition, were destroyed by the affirmative voice
of an immense majority. Even the deputies, who had excused
themselves by the nature of their instructions, and protested on
the 4th against the constitution subscribed by the majority on
the 3rd, alarmed by the great unanimity which prevailed, now
withdrew their protest.

We leave our readers to obtain an acquaintance mth the details
of the new constitution from other sources, because we, following
facts alone, can only very rarely suffer ourselves to advert to the
plans and projects or the manifestos and articles of politicians
and diplomatists* ; in this caSe, however, we must refer to a few
points, in consequence of their immediate relation to our subject.
In the drafl the hereditary principle of succession was recog-
nised; the succession was secured to the elector of Saxony, and,

* Literary intelligeDce does not fall within the scope of our plan, and least
of all in this place, because the draft merely remained a matter of theory, and
never became a fact. We shall however point out to those who desire this
information where it may be found : M^moires d'Oginski, at greater length in
Manso, Geschichte des pr. Staats, i. § 313-317* The drafl is comprised
under ten heads : 1, diets ; 2, diets of the kingdom ; 3, courts of the general
diet ; 4, council of state ; 6, commission of police ; 6, commission of war ;
7, commission of finance ; 8, commission of national education ; 9« commis-
sion of waivodeship ; 10, rank and condition of the officers of the republic. The
whole will be found as afterwards published as a law in the name of the king,
and a resolution of ike government of the 3rd of May, in the sixth chapter of
part the first of a work published in 1793 under the title, ' Vom Enstehen und
Untergange der Polnischen Constitution vomiii. Mai 1791.' Seite 200-231.

§IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 217

if he left no son^ the throne was to descend to his daughter and
her heirs. Further, a greater degree of power and influence in
public affairs was granted to the king than he had previously
possessed. All their privileges, it is true, were secured to the
nobility, but the citizens notwithstanding obtained a political
existence. The obstructive character of the liberum veto was re-
moved, and separate confederations and assemblies of confede-
rates were prohibited ; and in conclusion, it was determined that
a complete revision of the constitution should take place every
twenty-five years.

Although an alliance against every description of innovation
had been secretly formed between Austria, England and Prussia
at the very time in which the acceptance of the new constitution,
which was to give Poland a new weight in the scale of nations^
spread imiversal rejoicing throughout that kingdom, and Herz-
berg's influence in the cabinet of Berlin, which was favourable
to liberality, was undermined, yet Prussia continued for some
time longer to pursue its previous course. In a note delivered
on the 17th of May 1791 to the committee of foreign affairs,
count Golz, then Prussian ambassador in Warsaw^ declared,
that ^'the king congratulated the nation on account of the quick
removal of all obstructions to the improvement of the constitu-
tion.'^ At the same time the minister communicated a letter
from the king, which to every one not familiar with the style of
diplomatic correspondence must have conveyed the impression
that the king completely approved of the principles of the new
constitution. Taking into account the indefinite and obscure
language of diplomacy, we should indeed infer nothing more
from the letter, than that the king of Prussia (who most pro-
bably had never read the drafl) was not dissatisfied with a work
of which count Herzberg and Burke were loud in their com-
mendations, as Oginski proves from their own words. The king
of Prussia, in his letter^ not only clearly expresses his approba-
tion but his great joy at the adoption of the principle of here-
ditary succession^ the selection of the elector of Saxony as next
heir to the throne, the confirmation of the monarchical principle,
and the increase of the royal power and influence.

In a letter to king Stanislaus, dated the 2dth of May, the
king of Prussia expresses himself in a similar manner, and in a
ministerial note of the Prussian cabinet, dated the 21st of June,
all the steps taken by the diet, which were afterwards so se-

218 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

verely blamed^ were officially approved. It therefore appears
to us probable, that had the life of Leopold been prolonged^
who was never serious in the war against France, or in the
part which he took in the plans of the Prussian cabals and
the English aristocracy, the Russians would have had much
greater difficulty in carrying out their plans against Poland
than was afterwards the case. This supposition fully accords
with the accounts of the three secret articles of the congress
of Pilnitz, to which we shall refer. A conference was held
in Pilnitz, in September 1791, between the emperor Leopold and
the king of Prussia; and it is said that one of the secret articles
relating to Poland confirmed the succession to the throne of
Poland to the elector of Saxony, and the two others guaranteed
the independence and integrity of the new hereditary monarchy.
Leopold's death in March 1792, however, altered the whole state
of affairs.

It was quite possible to concede all that the able, intelligent,
and temperate defender of unfortunate Poland states in the con-
cluding chapters of the first part of his eulogy upon the patri-
otic portion of his countrymen, of their magnanimity, moderation,
wisdom, efforts and sacrifices, nay even of their voluntary tax-
ation and the augmentation of their army to 100,000 men*, and
yet to maintain that the country fell a prey to Russia, not as he
alleged; in consequence of the conduct of Prussia, but of the
treachery and meanness of the Polish magnates. When the
most distinguished Polish nobles and their king sold themselves^
then indeed Austria and Prussia, if they did not wish to sacrifice
their own subjects for foreigners, might well relinquish the idea
of rescuing Poland from the Russians ; there remained nothing
for them but to become partakers of the spoil. Among the
magnates, there were two who immediately separated themselves
from the cause of their country, Branicki, and Rzewusky, son of
the martyr of 177^ ; their influence and conduct however were
less injurious than those of others, who played a double cha-
racter in their native land, who, concealed themselves by masks
and under cover of darkness, murdered their nationality.

Branicki, who had always been a traitor, and by treason be-
came immensely rich, was married to Potemkin's niece. He now
went to the tyrant to Jassy and was present at his funeral ;

• The seventh chapter of the first part of * Vom Enstehen und Untergange^'
u. 8. w. is deroted to an account of what was gained by the constitution.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 221

Rzewusky withdrew to Vienna, and there and from thence he
continued to pursue the objects of the conspiracy ; the other
traitors, of whom the king himself was one, played the characters
of the most zealous patriots, till the Russians gave them the
signal to throw off the mask. The foremost rank among these
detestable enemies of their country was occupied by the same
Felix Potocki who succeeded in 177^ in obtaining from the
empress of Russia four starosties as the reward of his treason
to his country, when Branicki obtained only one. Together
with the king and Potocki must be consigned to infamy chan-
cellor Malachowski, brother of the noble-minded marshal of the
diet, and the shameless priest Kossakowski, who was the Judas
Iscariot among the patriotic apostles, and was president of the
committee which drew up the plan of the constitution. The
whole of these men, having been long sold to Russia, had re-
course to every possible means of obstructing and preventing the
working of the new order of things ; they took care to connect
every description of determinations and orders which were cal-
culated to produce disputes and dissatisfaction with the new
constitution ; and, in addition to this, they had especially excited
the people by the imposition of certain taxes. When they found
themselves unable to attain their chief object, Branicki went to
Potemkin, whilst the primate and count Rzewusky also left the
country. Felix Potocki joined his troops in Lithuania, and in
the meantime the chancellor and the bishop subscribed the
constitution ; all of them however anxiously waited for the
moment in which the Russians would break silence. On this
account Branicki returned earlier, in order at the diet to con-
spire against the diet ; but he afterwards again left it, in order to
return in company with the Russians, whilst Felix Potocki and
Rzewusky had entered into correspondence with Potemkin from
Vienna. As early as the period of which we now write, the
Russians had spun those threads on all sides which they still
continue to spin. They employed men and means of the most
various and opposite descriptions as spies and instruments, in
order to become acquainted with and to win over all those per-
sons who are ready to sell their country, and who prefer money,
estates and orders to truth and loysJty*. The magnates ad-

* We shall here quote a passage from the work referred to in a preceding
note, in order to enable the reader to connect all that then took place, with
what is still going forward. Part ii. p. 11 : " Russia has agents of all descrip*

220 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II,

ready mentioned had been long in con*espondence with Po-
temkin ; they were even present with him at the very moment
in which he was carried off by death on his journey to Jassy,
and after his death remained in that city^ in order to console
the small Russian party in the diet with the prospect of Rus-
sian bayonets.

Those powerful magnates who had publicly seceded from the
cause of their country, and thrown themselves completely into
ihe hands of the Russians, now began to form the most scan-
dalous conspiracies against national regeneration and against
the government of legal order, partly in the diet and partly in
the different localities of the kingdom in which they had in-
fluence. Among these conspirators the names of bishop Kossa-
kowski, governors Ozarowsky and Czetwertinsky, and deputy
Zlotnicki, must be especially mentioned. The last of these was
the person who in the name of Potocki summoned the poor and
rapacious nobility of Podolia to arms. By the choice of his mini-
sters, king Stanislaus gave obvious proofs of the emptiness of his
speeches, the vanity of his hypocritical patriotism, and of the
cowardly or treacherous use which he made of the new powers
with which he was entrusted. He appointed the faithless Bra-
nicki minister of war, and the traitorous chancellor Malachowski
minister of justice. Branicki, who had also previously tra-
velled publicly to Jassy to the Russians, whilst the diet was en-
gaged in deliberating upon the articles of the constitution,
having returned and remained as long in Poland as he could
promote his traitorous designs, now again returned to the Rus-
sians, in order to consult with them on the best means of effect-
ing with the greatest ease the oppression and downfall of his
country. On this occasion he availed himself of the pretence of
Potemkin's death, and the inheritance which thereby fell to his
wife ; and because the king was in his secret, he was able to
return to Warsaw, to arrange everything for the coming events,
and again sped back to Petersburg, still under pretence of at-
tending to the affairs of his inheritance. Felix Potocki and

tions, almost at every court. In addition to the ambassador, humbler diplo-
matic spies are maintained, who watch eveij step not only of the government,
but even of the Russian ambassador himself, and each of whom, according to
necessity, then receives especial commissions. In such cases Russia usually
selects foreign adventurers of approved abilities. Felix Potocki and Rzewusky
found two persons of this stamp in Vienna, one of whom was the agent of the
court and Ute other of Potemkm."

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 221

count Rzewuskj had preceded him thither. Thej there found
the brother of bishop Kossakowski, who had long been a general
in the Russian service^ and whose house now formed the point
of union for these traitors to their country.

The result of the deliberations of Branicki^ Potocki^ Rze-
wusky and others was a determination to call upon the Russians
to protect what they called Polish freedom ; and the means em-
ployed to bring the Russians to Poland was one of those confe-
derations expressly forbidden by the new constitution. It is
most highly probable that the acts of the confederation directed
against the constitution were all devised and settled in Petersburg
under Russian influence ; it was however necessary to conceid
this fact^ because a Polish confederation could only be formed on
Polish ground ; the band of magnates who were sold to Russia
were therefore obliged to return to Poland^ before they could
make known the reality of their confederation.

The empress Catharine had reached the sixtieth year of her
age, and Plato Suboff, her favourite at that time, who had hi-
therto confined himself to the duties of his position, which were
become less onerous, began to take part in public afiairs. Plato,
the insipid Markoff, Soltikoff, minister of war, and some other
persons of a similar stamp, persuaded the empress to send an
army into Poland and to employ open force. The persons who
then possessed dominion over tiie king of Prussia suffered him
to play an unworthy character, for they persuaded him to employ
the arts of duplicity and diplomacy instead of acting openly and
like a king. Prussia would have saved herself from oil the re-
proaches and accusations which are heaped upon her, and some-
times unjustly, in the work upon the ' Origin and Fall of the
Polish Constitution,' had she immediately declared that she
would look afler her own interests and aggrandisement, because
it was impossible to save a nation which (as Prussia long knew)
was betrayed by the king and the first persons of the kingdom.
Instead of advising the king to pursue this open and honourable
course, he was suffered to wear the mask of a faithful ally of the
new constitutional monarchy of Poland till the middle of May
1792. For this reason he again sent Lucchesini to Warsaw,
who till past the middle of the first decennium of the present
century continued always to be the forerunner of every piece of
treachery and disgraceful conduct practised by the cabinet of
Berlin : on this occasion he was to play a character which no
honourable man could well undertake.

222 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

By means of artful, conciliatory or consolatory answers^ which
he communicated in person to the king or the diet, in order to
leave no record of his treachery, Lucchesini contrived to amuse
and keep back the Poles, till a complete understanding mth the
Russians had been effected through Danish mediation. This
had no sooner taken place, than, to the astonishment of every
one, he assumed a very different language on the 14th of May,
and renounced the relations hitherto existing. The Russian
troops had been already long on their march, in order by force
of arms to restore the ancient anarchy of Poland ; and the diet
had organized an army, to be commanded by Joseph Ponia*
towsky, in order to repel the invasion. Up till this time, the
king and the diet had made the marquis acquainted with every
step which they took, and he had expressed his gratitude for
every communication ; but he altered his tone on the very day
on which the traitors to their country at length sprung the mine
in Targowitsch, which had been filled in Petersburg. This
time also the cunning Italian was not forgetful of his thanks
and the display of his hypocritical friendship for the king and
the diet, on being made acquainted with their military measures ;
but he added, that ^^ his king however could take no account qf the
plans with the consideration qf which the diet was occupied/'

The band of conspirators against their country, who were
gathered together in Petersburg, in the meantime had placed
themselves and their Poland completely under the protection of
Russia, then went to Targowitsch and there caused their confe->
deration to be proclaimed. Did we not know from other
sources that the manifesto which was published on the 14th of
May 1792 in Targowitsch had been previously agreed upon with
Plato Suboff, who had had the entire management of Russian
affairs since Potemkin's death, with Suboff's mentor Soltikoff,
who had first introduced him to the notice of the empress, and
with thf Gallo-Russian Markoff, this would be sufficiently ob-
vious firom the date alone*. With Russian audacity, the few

* It is said with respect to this circumstance, in a note to the second part
of the book entitled ' Vom Enstehen nnd Untergange/ Bcc , "On the 14th of
May there was no assembly in Targowitsch ; nay, the founders of the confede-
ration could not have been there on that day. Potocki set out from Peters-
burg on the 7tht and Rzewusky on the 10th of May, and could not conse-
quently be in Targowitsch on the 14th, which is by much too far from Peters-
burg to be reached in that interval of time. It was therefore a scandalous
falsehood for the Targowitsch confederates, who first came to Poland with the
Russian army, to affirm that thnr proclamation was subscribed at Targowitsch
on the 14th of May."

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTIONB. 223

men whose names are mentioned in the note^ assumed the ap-
pearance and tone of being the representatives of the whole
nation; we shall not trouble our readers with the sophistical
language employed by them in the act of confederation^ which
precisely resembles the philosophy of law and justice contained
in other manifestos. They speak^ as they allege, in the name of
all the senators, ministers and the whole nobility, and call upon
the whole people, with the aid of Russia, to unite in their en-
deavours to restore a free and republican system cf ffovemment^
and to put an end to the new nioDarchical constitution. A.fter the
lapse of only four days from the publication of this manifesto^ the
Russian minister Bulgakoff sent a note to the king and the diet
on the 18th, in which he declared that the empress would support
the demands of the Targowitsch confederates by her arms.

Among the reasons which the Russians assigned for their in-
terference, or rather for their brutal dominion in Poland, some
are remarkable for their naivetij and one especially does very
little honour to the Germans and to the nationality and patriot-
ism of their princes. The small German princes, as the Russian
apologist alleged, are accustomed to see with satisfaction the in-
terference of foreign powers with their internal affairs, and it is
always agreeable to them, when foreign states become guarantees
for the preservation of their ancient constitutions, and conse-
quently, we may add, of all their defects also. The Polish diet
was accused of having converted itself into a confederation, pro-
longed the time of its sittings, and, in order to recall the fable of
the wolf and the lamb, it was further alleged that ambassadors
had been sent from Warsaw to Constantinople to conclude a
peace with the Turks. Had not the other chief powers of Eu-
rope been involved in precarious relations with France, of which
we shall afterguards give an account, and had not the ephe-
meral democracy of France, which could never long exist in such
a country and among such a people, inspired them with the
utmost dread, they certainly never would have suffered such
men as Suboff, Soltikoff and Markoff to have insulted the Polish
nation and king by the use of such language as the following : —

* Those who signed the terms of the conspiracy against their country were,
— one senator only, Anton Czetwertynski, governor of Przemysl ; Branicki, mi-
nister of state ; and Rzewusky and Felix Potocki, who had formerly been
ministers ; and from among the nobles, Wielohurski, ZIotnicki, Mosszczenski^
Zogorski, Suchorzewski, Kobylecki, Schweykowski and Halewicz.

224 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION, [CH. II.

" The empress/' says Bulgakoff, " is ready to pardon those Poles
who unconditionally submit to her will ; but only on condition
that they recall the oath which they have taken to the constitu-
tion of the 3rd of May 1791/' Nay, the free Poles were after-
wards addressed as if they had been mere Russian vassals!
'* The Poks/^ he continues, ^^ should place their whole reliance
upon the magnanimity and generosity by which the whole conduct
of the empress is uniformly guided.^^ The Polish nation was
filled with immense indignation at the use of such language, but
the people could do nothing without the king, the ministers and
the magnates, who, like the king, were only concerned for their
luxuries, comforts and enjoyments, and for all of whom the lan-
guage of the Russian minister was well-calculated. King Sta-
nislaus, instead of attaching himself to the great number of those
who were ready to risk everything to gain everything, or for an
honourable and glorious fall, sought for aid from the Prussians^
and relied upon the former smooth words and promises of
Lucchesini. We may suppose however the greatness of his
astonishment, when the unprincipled Italian audaciously returned
him an answer, which was directly contradictory to all his former
promises. ^^ As," says Lucchesini, '^ the king of Prussia has
had no share in the formation of the constitution of 1791, he
does not consider himself bound to furnish assistance to those
who now propose to defend that constitution by force of arms."
Still more bitter and comfortless than the diplomatic note of the
Italian was the peculiar answer of the German king to a private
letter which poor Stanislaus had addressed to him.

The king abuses and blames the Polish constitution, which he
had previously recognized and approved of both in ministerial
notes and private letters, and not only refuses to render any
assistance to its defenders, but concludes his letter with a threat
and the indication of a new partition. He states, (we may add,
in the language of deep irony,) " that he is ready to unite with
the empress of Russia and with the court of Vienna, and in
common with them to enter into consultation, with a view to
devise measures calculated to restore repose to Poland." The
Poles were still more shamefully betrayed by their own king
than even by their previous allies ; he shrunk with fear from the
adoption of the only means of deliverance which remained,
yielded to his effeminacy and cowardice, and tried to pursue
that middle course which in matters of great moment or danger

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 225

leads only to pitifulness or contempt, A Polish army it is true
had been got on foot in Warsaw ; the king however did not put
himself at its head, but obtained the supreme command for his
nephew Joseph Poniatowsky, because, as he was desirous of
being reconciled with the Russians, he could make the best use
of his nephew in obstructing every bold measure to which the
patriots were disposed to have recourse, and to keep himself free
from imputations. The Polish army, destined to oppose the
Russian force, which was sent to the aid of the Targowitsch con-
federates, was separated into three divisions : the first under
the command of Joseph Poniatowsky, the second of Michael
Wielhorski, whilst the third had at its head Kosciusko (Kost*
schiesky), who had gained great glory in the North American war
of jfreedom, by the side of Pulawsky.

The whole war was badly managed from the beginning, not
merely because the chief command was entrusted to a young and
inexperienced man, all whose measures were prevented or em*
barrassed by his weak uncle, who was merely solicitous about
the favour of the Russians, but the Russians were superior to
the Poles in number, although Oginski undoubtedly makes this
difference too great. According to Oginski's account, Kochowski
and Kreczetnikoff, the Russian commanders, had 80,000 Rus*
sians and 20,000 Cosacks at their disposal. This army was
allured over by that of the Poles, which had been compelled to
retire, reinforced by the clients of the confederates, and the
whole of Lithuania joined the Russian confederation. Oginski
had resigned the office of commander-in-chief in Lithuania; the
Russian commander immediately appointed the Russian general
Samuel Kossakowski, brother of the bishop, in his stead, and as
if, in addition to the infliction of an injury, he meant to show his
contempt, he appealed on this occasion to public opinion, which
no Russian either can or dare for one moment consider. In
order to organize a Lithuanian confederation, Alexander Sapieha,
the high chancellor, was afterwards made marshal of Lithuania,
against his will, and the confederation formed in this way joined
with that of Targowitsch.

The bravery and courage displayed in the field by the Poles
against the Russians, who were superior in force, were under
these circumstances entirely fruitless. They were deserted by
the Lithuanians; the king rendered the execution of any heroic
determination utterly impossible^ by bringing persons into the

VOL. VI. Q

226 FIFTH PHBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II.

council of war whose sacrifices and desperate resolves, when
necessity impelled, appeared ridiculous. The -whole detail of
these affairs will be found in the fourth chapter of the second
part of the * History of the Polish Constitution,* already often
referred to; we shall satisfy ourselves with recording a sin-
gle example. Together with the traitor Malachowski, the king
took into the ministry the disloyal Chreptowitsch, who carried
on an uninterrupted correspondence with Bulgakoff ; it was the
peculiar business of this man to work upon the mind of the
miserable Stanislaus, under the directions of the Russian minister.
He represented strongly to the king, that if he did not rouse the
empress's vanity by too determined a resistance, he might obtain
easy conditions, such as would not be directly burthensome to
the nation, and would be greatly to his own private advantage as
well as to that of his family*. It was no wonder therefore, that all
the efforts and resistance of the Poles during the months of June
and July proved entirely fruitless, although Kosciusko gained
great glory in the battle of Dubienka, when he maintained his
position against the Russian general Kochowski. He was im-
mediately afterwards obliged to commence his retreat, because
the Russians were advancing through Oallicia and threatening
his rear.

At this time the king played a scandalous game. He kept
the guards and about 5000 other troops, which would have
greatly augmented the strength of the Polish army, around his
own person ; he was in fact daily expected to join the army when
he was only thinking of the mode of executing his traitorous
designs. At the very time in which the Poles were fighting bo
gloriously at Dubienka, Stanislaus was negotiating .with Bulga-
koff through Chreptowitsch to sell himself to the Russians. It

* llie readers for whom this work is especiallv desigoed, will no doubt
thank us for quoting a passage from Oginski's M^moires, instead of at-
tempting to give any characteristic description of the king. In this passage
he appears and speaks in all the effeminate pitifulness of his nature. Oginski
was at that time with the king, and had read to him the bold manifesto issued
by the majority of Lithuanians in Grodno, in opposition to the declaration of
their countrymen who were well-disposed towards the Russians. He states,
" After I had read the document, I added, that it was signed by several hun-
dred names, had been printed in Qrodno, and a copy sent to me." The king
exhibited a mixture of hopefulness, disquiet, and astonishment. But what
was my astonishment, when after some reflection he stopped and said to me*
" TJiai is well / very well ! hut do not the$e men fear to compromise themselves and
expose themselves to danger and persecution, should the alternative prove ut^fiivour'
able to us f"

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BSYOLTTTIONS. 227

18 indeed probable that the Poles were betrayed by the king be-
fore the battle at Dubienka, and that the guards and other troops
were intentionally kept away from the army ; this may be pre-
sumed from the date of the battle, compared with that of the
king's public renunciation of the constitution to which he had
sworn. Kosciusko was victorious on the 17th of July, and as
early as the 22nd, Stanislaus declared in the council of the high
dignitaries, officers of state, and ministers of the kingdom, that
he had resolved to subscribe the Targowitsch confederation *• The
weak-minded king excused himself for adopting this course by
the poor subterfuge, that he would thus preserve Poland from a
second partition. The men who openly and boldly declared in
the assembly, in which Stanislaus made this contemptible dis-
play of cowardice, that the king from being the protector had
become the betrayer of his country, notwithstanding the failure
of their efforts, deserve our particular respect and commendation
in these times of ours, in which sacrifices are called follies, the
cowardly middle path that of wisdom, and the pursuit of wealth,
honours and pleasure exclusively prudence. These were, Mala-
chowski and Sapieha, marshals of the diet ; Ignaz Potocki, grand
marshal of the court of Lithuania ; Soltan, court marshal of Li-
thuania; Ostrowski, treasurer of the crown, and KoUontay, vice-
chancellor of the crown. Those magnates, who had long since
betrayed and sold their country, or who, like the king, had be-
come merely anxious respecting the advantages and enjoyments
of themselves and their families, and masked their treason under
some doctrine of expediency, were, the king's two brothers, the
grand chamberlain and high chancellor of the crown, Mala-
chowski, grand marshal of the crown, Minszech, vice-chancellor
of Lithuania, Chreptowitsch, vice-commander of the forces in
Lithuania, Tyskewitsch, grand treasurer of Lithuania, and Dzie-
konski, grand treasurer of the court.

On the following day, the king carried into execution what
he had announced in a polished speech on the previous one as
his irrevocable determination. What that really was, has been
best described by Dziekonski, treasurer of the court, in a rhe-

* What b almost incredible is, that in this meeting he read the letter of
the empress, in which she commanded him to join the confederation, and added
a sentence at the conclusion, in which he was treated with the greatest con*
tempt. It is as follows : " thai it was only in his power, by subscribing the act
of confederation, drawn up under her protection, to render it possible for her to
call kerseifany longer his sister and friendly neighbour/'

Q2

228 FIFTH PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

torical and pompous speech, full of eulogies on the king, which
he delivered in presence of the high assembly. He said, '^ We
are all gratejul to the king for endeavouring to save the country
by submitting to the diminution of his own glory. '^ As early as
the 23rd the king subscribed the Targowitsch confederation, and
therefore sacrificed the kingdom, the army, the constitution and
its noble defenders to the Russian Plato, Branicki, Felix Potocki,
Rzewusky, Kossakowski and their accomplices, instead of at least
daring the uttermost. The capital and the whole country were
deeply incensed at the king's meanness ; but what was to be
done ? Every man was now obliged tx> think of himself, for the
Targowitsch confederates, in consequence of Stanislaus's peijuiy,
from being the opponents, had all at once become the represen-
tatives of the national will. From that moment, the traitors,
according to positive law, were in a condition to persecute the
majority of their countrymen, in the name of the Polish nation,
and for having remained true to their oaths and their nationality.
In this they by no means failed ; they persecuted them by civil
and mihtary tribunals ; their estates were placed under seques-
tration, or wholly confiscated. Inasmuch as we are not engaged
in a history of unfortunate Poland, but only desirous of indicating
the connexion of the events which there took place with the gene-
ral history of Europe, we hasten on to the development of the
plans first formed by the Russians in 1 792 in Verdun, and after-
wards more minutely defined in Berlin, Vienna and Petersbuig.
The first care of the promoters of the conspiracy was to give some
appearance of justice to the treason of the Poles and the military
force of the Russians. This was effected by converting the
Petersburg conspiracy into a Polish confederation, appointing
Felix Potocki, the ringleader of the traitors, grand marshal, and
calling together a general assembly in Brzesk, which was to
represent the diet of the kingdom. On this occasion all the
necessary forms were neglected, for the particular confederations
of the districts, waiwodeships, &c., which ought to have preceded,
were only subsequently formed, and marshals of the various
districts and waiwodeships were appointed as the number of
the traitors increased. The combined forces of Russians and
Poles immediately took possession of the whole country, op-
pressed and maltreated the inhabitants, destroyed the new order
of things piece by. piece, and introduced the old everywhere in
its stead. The Russians therefore, under pretence of restoring

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 229

the ancient constitution, the republic and freedom, re-introduced
anarchy into the state, and brought back the former abuses,
which were acknowledged by all parties, both into the civil and
military afikirs of the kingdom. The reason why Austria con-
ducted herself as an offended party in the Polish affidrs will be
explained by what follows.

Immediately after Leopold's death, Prussia and Austria, rely-
ing upon the aristocracy and plutocracy of England, had com-
menced a Polish war against France ; the cession of any portion
of its territory, and especially that of Danzig and Thorn, having
been haughtily refused to Prussia by the pew Polish monarchy,
that country had immediately opened up negotiations with Rus-
sia by the mediation of Denmark, induced Austria by means of
numerous cabals to participate in their designs, and both agreed
secretly to recall the guarantee for the integrity of Poland, which
had been secretly given in Pilnitz. The commencement of a
treaty between Prussia and Russia was already made, when Luc-
chesini the Italian was sent to Warsaw to keep up the appear-
ance of friendship on the part of Prussia towards the Poles, till
the Russian army should be on its march, and the treason of the
venal Poles' completely organized. Constitutional Poland was
deceived by Lucchesini's smooth words, and was relying confi-
dently on the promised assistance of Prussia, when the king's
letter, to which we have already referred, suddenly and without
reason, declared that the relations hitherto existing had ceased.
In the meantime the Russians had taken possession of Poland,
and in default of a diet, what was called the Generality, first in
Brzesk, and then in Grodno under the influence of the Targo-
witsch confederacy, ruled unhappy Poland betrayed even by its
own king. One hostile declaration on the part of Prussia now
followed another, and the world soon began to suspect a new
partition of Poland. The true views of the Russians and Prus-
sians were first known in January 1793^ when the Prussians
were driven out of Champagne, and the Austrians had lost Bel-
gium, when the former were scarcely able to save the left bank of
the Rhine, and the latter were arming to defend the Seven United
Provinces against Dumourier by the aid of the English and
Dutch. At the end of the year 1793, Branicki and Felix Po-
tocki having been alarmed in Grodno and gone to Petersburg to
complain of the report concerning a new partition, Plato Subo£^
who indeed was by no means accustomed to speak the truth.

230 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIB8T DIVISION. [CH. II.

audaciously replied to Oginaki's expression of the general belief
of such an opinion^ that ^ none but enemies of the empress eauld
engage in spreading such reports/'

At the very time in which Plato Suboff made this declaration^
Russia and Prussia had long agreed upon the plan of a new par-
tition of Poland. Negotiations had been carried on respecting
the subject during the whole of the year 1792> aod at the dose
of that year, Prussian troops were collected on the frontiers of
Poland. Previous to the commencement of the campaign against
France in 1792> Prussia had put off the agreement with Russia
as to the fate of Poland till after a peace with France, and there-
fore Lucchesini was obliged to amuse and deceive the Poles till
May. During the campaign, a general congress was summoned
in Luxemburg to agree upon a general treaty of partition
respecting certain portions, which were to be separated from
France, Germany and Poland, and distributed anew by the am-
bassadors of Prussia, Austria, Russia, England and Holland;
this however led to no results. The Russian, Austrian and
Prussian ambassadors had already arrived in Luxemburg, and
the Dutch and English were expected, when the failure of the
undertaking of the Austrians and Prussians against France
compelled the latter to avail itself of the difficulties of the em-
peror, in order to effect the oppression of Poland. England was
satisfied by Russia consenting, in two agreements, to carry on
hostilities against France and its trade, and conceding advan-
tages to English commerce. Russia, which still pretended to
maintain the rights of neutral nations by sea, even attempted at
a later period to come to an understanding with England respect*
ing the relinquishment of the rights of neutrals, in order not to
be impeded in her designs on Poland. On this occasion the
Danish minister Bemstorff gained for himself great glory, for he
produced a much more powerful effect by his declarations against
the English usurpations, than the Russians did by their fleet.
Lucchesini having played the inglorious part of the character of
a Prussian minister at the court of the constitutional king of
Poland, Buchholz no longer found any difficulty in assuming a
hostile position as regards the constitution, the king having al-
ready renounced his protection, because the partition was settled
before Prussia commenced her retreat from Champagne in the
autumn of 1792.

The Russian and Austrian ministers were at that time with the

§ lY.] BSIiQIAN AND POLISH BBYOLUTIONB. 231

king of PruMia in Verdun^ and those preliminaries were there
agreed upon which were afterwards extended into a treaty in
Vienna and Petersburg. Prussia promised^ and kept the pro-
mise just as little as those which had been made to Poland^ that
if England, Holland and Austria did not oppose her union with
Russia for the partition of Poland^ she would again take part in
the war. Prussia now proceeded^ on the 4th of January 1793,
to conclude that treaty of alliance with Russia^ which is indeed
mentioned by Martens, but which is just as little incorporated in
his collection of treaties (NouVteu Recudl, &c.) as the single
articles and determinations Hgreed upon in Vienna and Peters-
burg at that time concerning the partition* It is of little im-
portance to us to know those secret speeches and writings, as
our object is merely to introduce and judge of the results, which
must necessarily he known to all.

The Russians were in possession of the whole of Poland at
the time in which the Prussians concluded the treaty of the 4th
of Januaxy 17^3, and MoUendor^ at the head of a Prussian
army, marched into Great Poland; they however immediately
caused their troops to retire fiom those districts into which the
Prussians advanced. On the 16th of January 1793, a declara-
tion was published by MoUendorf, which appears to us more
disgraceful to the king who suffered it to be issued than even
the violence practised by his troops. Military violence may cer-
tainly be much better excused .by political necessity and by the
right which is given by nature t6 animals and men, of the stronger
over the weaker, than the diplomatic sophistry of a declaration
which at the same time does despite to common sense, to public
morality and all feeling of shame. The declaration moreover
might have had its value in refer^ce to the English aristocrati-
cal and plutocratical parliament,' -which was to be induced to
keep silence, and with the Austrian aristocracy, whose jealousies
were to be allayed, for it sought to terriiy both by the bugbear
of French democracy. It is obvious that England was at that
time satisfied at the expense of France and of neutral naviga-
tion, and induced by conunercial advantages to connive at the
proceedings of Russia, because at the very moment in which
Prussia took possession of her part of Poland, Russia on the
8th of February 1793 renounced her treaty of commerce with
France, and on the very same day signed two treaties with En-
gland, one in reference to trade and the other to the war. In

232 FIFTH PJSRIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

the Prussian declaration it is said, " The spirit of the French
democrats and the horrible principles of that dreadful Parisian
sect are continually spreading in Poland ; the intrigues of the
emissaries of the jacobins have there found a powerful support.
There already exist in the country some foroial jacobin clubs,
which disseminate and proclaim their opinions without disguise
or shame; and this dreadful plague has especially spread its
baneful influence in Great Poland, into which MoUendorf has
now advanced with the troops under his command,^' &c. We
do not think it necessary to communicate longer passages, be-
cause the whole document is precisely of the same complexion.
In reference to the military occupation of the country it contains
the following expression :— '^ Great Poland will be especially oc-
cupied by the Prussian army, because the most of the zealous
advocates of that patriotism are there to be found which the
king of Prussia has characterized as false ; it may also be neces-
sary to take possession of some waiwodeships bordering on
Prussia, and thus to guard the latter from infection, by the sup-
pression of jacobinism in the districts thus occupied.'^ Who-
ever doubts that the daring sophistry of diplomatists is pushed
^to as great an extent in this Prussian declaration in favour of
military and monarchical deeds of violence, as Barr^re and
Robespierre had long pushed the same art in favour of repub-
lican violence and murder, has only to read the account of the
manner in which the king of Prussia is justified in this mani-
festo for having suddenly proved false to those promises which
he had made twelve months before. The king of Prussia, it was
alleged, had entered into a defensive alliance with the monar^
chicat republiCy but the Poles had changed this republic into
an hereditary monarchy ; and that therefore the king was not
bound to furnish the aid which he had promised, because he
must maintain unimpaired the guarantee which the empress of
Russia had given for the permanence of the previous republican
constitution.

The invading Prussian troops not only seized upon three wai-
wodeships in' Great Poland, but took possession also of Sieradia,
Leutschitz, Rawa, Cujavia, Inowroslav, Plotzk, and a part of
Masuria. Prussia had fixed her affections on Danzig and Thorn
for twenty years past, but England even now felt a difficulty in
allowing the freedom of these commercial cities to be destroyed ;
these diflSculties were however first removed in February, when

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTION8. 233

the treaties with Russia ahready mentioned were partly made
and partly near their eonclusion, and on the 24th of February
Prussia took possession of Danzig and its territory. The de-
claration^ issued on this occasion comphdns^ that the inhabit-
ants of Danzig had never exhibited any friendly feelings to-
wards Prussia^ that the town had lately become the seat of some
malicious sects of the jacobins, and that it had received one of
the jacobin scoundrels within its walls, and could not be per-
suaded to deliver him up till after many representations. ''This
recent example/' it proceeds, ^^ other frequent abuses of a mis-
understood freedom, the intimate connexions which the friends
of insurrection in France and Poland maintain with a party,
which, by means of the boldness of its principles, has obtained
the upper hand of the majority of well-disposed citizens ; and
finally, the facility which the common enemy would find, with
the aid of their adherents in Danzig, of providing themselves
with provisions, have drawn the attention of the king to that
city, and placed him under the necessity of taking means for
restraining its inhabitants within suitable bounds in order to
provide for the security and quiet of the neighbouring Prus»an
provinces. To this end," &c. During the whole month of
March this unfortunate city was so harassed, that as early as
the 2nd of April 17^3, the burgomaster and council declared
that they and their fellow-citizens felt themselves constrained to
yield to their fate, and would submit to the supremacy of the
Prussians t«

The undertakings of Prussia alarmed the Targowitsch con-
federates and traitors, who were willing to sell their country to
Russia alone, but not at the same time to Austria and Prussia;
most of them therefore left the general assembly, which had
been removed from Brzesk to Grodno, and retired to their estates.
Felix Potocki foresaw the coming storm ; he knew that the Poles
would be compelled to sanction a new partition of their country ;
he therefore caused himself to be sent on an embassy to Peters-
burg on the 9th of March 1793, and thus escaped the difficulty;
whilst the high chancellor Malachowski, in the name of the king
and the government, published a weak and pithless answer to
the Prussian declaration. The announcement of the alliance be-
tween Russia and Prussia was in the meantime delayed, and

* Marten's ' Nouveau Recueil/ vol. v. pp. 120, 121.
t Ibid., vol. V. pp.122, 123.

3S4 FIFTH PBBIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH« II.

general Igelstrom and Sievers were sent as ambassadors from
Petersburg to Grodno, in order to compel the Poles to acquiesoe
in the spoliation of their country ; and their answer to the in-
quiry put by the Targowitsch confederates respecting the mean-
ing of the invasion of the Prussians and its approval by the
empress, was from the very first of an evasive character. They
professed to be astonished at the circumstances and to be wholly
uninformed of their purport. On receiving this reply, the con-
federates published an appeal, which appeared to prepare the way
for a general arming among the nobles ; but being creatures of
Russia, they immediately recalled it on being reproached by
Sievers, and threatened by Igelstrom with the disarming of the
garrison of Warsaw.

The preparations for the last decisive step were made by the
Russians immediately after Felix Potocki's departure for Peters-
burg. It was resolved to appoint a new head to the confedera-
tion in his stead, and king Stanislaus was persuaded to go from
Warsaw to Grodno, and to change the general assembly there
met into a diet ; that is, not merely to summon to this assembly
the confederates, but plenipotentiaries from the whole nation.
Before this plan was carried into effect, a scheme was devised as
to the course of conduct to be pursued by the diet, and the
manner of holding the provincial assemblies by which it was to
be preceded. Military force was to be employed as the chief
instrument, the Russian army was to be concentrated on the
Dniester, or still better in the Ukraine, and a sufficient number
of troops drawn round Grodno closely to blockade the diet in
that city. As soon as these measures were adopted, the Russian
and Prussian ambassadors simultaneously (April 9th, 1793) sent
a declaration of precisely the same import by their respective
secretaries to the general confederation. We shall quote merely
a few sentences from this diplomatic note, in order to show in
what manner the conduct of the republicans in France was used
as a pretence in order to justify those military and monarchical
tyrants for treading under foot right, justice, reason and hu-
manity in Poland.

In essentials, the same things were repeated in this diplo-
matic note which had been previously said in the Prussian de-
claration. Much stress is laid upon democracy and jacobinism,
although the Poles, whose nationality was at stake, neither knew
nor wished to know anything of either the one or the other.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH KBYOLUTIONS. 2S5

Muoh was said concerning the extinction of a fire, which^ if it had
been really kindled, would neither have foimd fuel in Russia nor
in Prussia. Finally, it is observed with great apparent 8im«
plicity, that Russia and Prussia were unable to conceive any
better means of guarding against that complete annihilation with
which the republic was threatened, not merely by internal dis-
turbances but by the monstrous and erroneous opinions ex-
pressed among the Poles, than bp inearporating its frontier prtH
vinees with their own states and taking actual possession of them,
and in order seasonably to protect them against the dreadjul cor^
sequences of such opinions, jpc. The cowardly confederation did
not venture to return any answer to this truly contemptuous de-
claration; Walewski, who now filled Potocki's situation, and
Seveiin Rzewusky indeed for themselves protested against the
proposal, but were obliged in consequence immediately to retire
from Orpdno, or risk the loss of the whole of their estates.

Austria deported herself as a suffering party, although Thugut
and his adherents, firom the 28th of March 1793, had become
complete masters of the cabinet and of the good-natured em-
peror Francis. They were at that time fUU of the idea of seek-
ing for compensation in France for the advantages which Prussia
had realized in Poland, as was proved in Verdun ; and it was not
till the following year that Thugut and the prince of Coburg
began to entertain the unlucky thought of preferring the easy
gain of Pbland to the difficulties of realizing an equivalent in
France. The king of Poland was treated in some measure as a
prisoner in Warsaw, insulted in every way by the Russian gene-
rals, and besieged by their soldiers in his own palace. Many mem-
bers of the general confederation which governed Poland from
Grodno left that city, it is true, but there was no want of men of
rank, who allowed themselves to be made tools for every dis-
honourable purpose. Among these may be enumerated the two
Kossakowskis, Zabiello, Ozarowsky, Pulawsky, Ankwitsch, Sie-
rakowsky, Wlodek and others, who were not ashamed again to
place at the head of the generality of Grodno the marshal of the
diet of 177^9 ^^^ b^ ^^1^ condemned as a traitor by the whole
nation. Adam Poninski, marshal of the diet of 177^9 during
the last diet had been found guilty of high treason, bribery and
public robbery, declared to be an outlaw, and sentenced to
banishment, and yet the shameless leaders of the generality of
Grodno again restored him to his former station. In Lithuania^

236 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

neither the vice-chancellor KoUontay, the treasurer Ostrowski^
nor the court-marshal Soltan, would disgrace themselves by be-
coming the mere instruments of foreigners ; but the same gran-
dees who restored Poninski to the office of marshal found people
in Lithuania also whose services they used instead of the officers
of the crown whose names have just been mentioned. When
these offices were again occupied^ the idea was seriously enter-
tained of changing what was called the generality of Grodno into
a diet. For this purpose the presence of the king was necessary^
and he willingly obeyed the commands of foreigners^ although
when he went from Warsaw to Grodno^ such men as chancellor
Malachowski and vice-chancellor Chreptowitsch were not dis-
posed to accompany him thither.

In Grodno not only the king at firsts but even the general
assembly, which was wholly devoted to the Russians, delayed
the calling of a diet, because the purposes for which it was in-
tended were known from the last Prusso-Russian declaration,
but they had recourse to a subterfuge which it was easy to set
aside. They alleged, that according to the former and now
restored constitution, the king and his permanent council alone
were capable of calling a diet, but that the council was now
abolished. This permanent council therefore was also imme-
diately restored, and for a reason which sounded almost like the
manifesto of the partitioning powers, who pretended to such a
friendly anxiety for the welfare of Poland. It was said that this
was done in order that the country might not be without a coun^
cU and government , This new permanent council of government
was composed entirely according to the wishes of the partition-
ing powers, and of such persons alone as were disposed blindly
to follow the directions of Russia. These persons were entrusted
with the drawing up of the proclamation {universalien) addressed
to the local diets for the election of deputies. Every care was
taken that none should appear at the diet who had not previously
approved of all the steps taken by the Russian party. All means,
aUowable and unallowable, were adopted without distinction; in
one case corruption and falsehood, and in another the confisca«
tion of estates and militaiy power, were resorted to in order to
exclude every patriot from election, and to secure the return of
those who were merely creatures of Russia. The consequence
was, that all the pains which were taken to give the diet of
Grodno, which was opened on the l7th of June 1793, the ap-

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTIONS. 237

pearance of a fireei legal and full aasembly of the representatives
of the nation^ proved vain*.

As early as two days after the opening of the assembly (on the
19th of June); the Russian and I^ssian ambassadors deUvered
notes of a similar tenor, in which they imperiously demanded
the cession of certain districts of Poland therein enumerated.
On the 23rd the diet replied to these notes in a very different
tone ; toward Russia they expressed themselves with humility
and submission, but to Prussia in language of insolence and
contempt. The diet entreated the empress of Russia not to com-
pel them formally to confirm a new partition of Poland, partly
because the diet had no power to sanction such a partition, and
if they had, their permission would be no justification for the
spoliation of their country. In the note delivered to the Prus-
sian ambassador, he was only briefly required to give orders to
the Prussian troops to evacuate the provinces of which they had
taken possession. From this time notes from both the ambas-
sadors, Sievers and Buchholz, followed clos^ one upon another.
The Russians began to treat all those who would not yield un-
conditional obedience according to the Russian custom. • As early
as the 2nd of July fiileen deputies were thrown into prison, and
five were placed under a gufud of Russian soldiers in their own
houses. These persons were only able to obtain their freedom
again by promising to concur in the nomination of a committee
to negotiate with Russia a treaty to be concluded for the par-
tition of Poland. Debates were afterwards, it is true, carried on
for several days respecting the powers to be conferred on the
committee to be so chosen, but eventually the diet was obliged
in this, as in everything else, to yield to tbe influence and com-
mands of Russia. On the I7th the committee received com-
mands from the diet to accept of the conditions of the Russian
proposal. It is not therefore to be wondered at, that a negotia-
tion which affected the half of Poland should have been brought
to a close as early as the 22nd. An obstinate contest was after-
wards commenced with Prussia, in which the diet seemed to
forget that the Prussian demands were at the same time also the
Russian.

* 7H at most of the whole number of senators were present and in the
chamber of deputies ; deputies were wanting from the following provinces or
districts : — Kiew, Braclaw, Podolia, Posen, Kalitsch, Gnesen, Sieradia,
Leutschitz, Brzcescie, Inowroclaw, the country of Debrzyn, Polozk, Minsk,
Witebsk, and the district of Braslaw.

238 FIFTH PBBIOD^ — ^FIBST DIVISION* [OH. II.

Prassia first required that a committee should be appointed
for the arrangement of her demands, such as had been appointed
in the case of Russia, or rather that additional powers should
be conferred on the same committee so as to embrace the ques-
tions affecting her* On this occasion, for the first time, it was
hinted, that in case of the partition, Austria would certainly ex-
pect not to depart empty-handed. It was at that time of great
importance both to the English and Austrians to keep the king
of Prussia in a good humour^ who still continued, in August
179s, to linger on the left bank of the Rhine, as the duke of
Brunswick after the reduction of Mayeoce had absolutely done
nothing to support the Austrians in their undertakings against
Alsace. Russia was therefore prevailed upon by the powers car-
rying on the war against France to press forward and support
the Prussian cause in Poland, in order that the king might not
be obliged to withdraw his troops from the war of the revolution*
The diet however, even after having accepted the Russian con-
ditions and agreed to the treaty of the 17th of August 1793,
perseveringly refused -to accede to the demands of Prussia, or in
other words, to grant powers to the committee for negotiating as
to the cessions which she claimed, or to sign the treaty of par-
tition agreed upon through the mediation of Russia, reserving its
ratification for the diet. All the Prussian representations having
failed to produce any efiect, Sievers, on the dOth of August,
delivered a note which was accompanied by the plan of Pod-*
borsky as to the mode of proceeding, and threatened to treat the
whole assembly as Henriot and the mob of Paris in the begin-
ning of June 1793 bad treated the national convention.

On the 2nd of September, when the diet was assembled for
peaceful deliberation, Sievers marched his Russians into their
chamber, and stationed guards around the assembly and the
castle. The king, the throne and the diet were surrounded by
Russian soldiery, whose cannon were pointed against the cham-
ber ; and Sievers declared, that unless the diet on that very day
conferred upon the committee full powers to sign the treaty, he
would have recourse to force, and compel them to submit at the
point of the bayonet. The diet was indeed obliged to give way
to force, but not without attempts to obtain a further delay. The
committee were accordingly empowered, but with the reservation
that the treaty should not be ratified till an agreement had been
entered into with Prussia, through the mediation of Russia, on

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTIONB. 389

a treaty of commerce and other points yet undetermined. From
this moment there commenced a new series of diplomatic cabals
and acts of violence, which we shall only notice in general, with-
out going into particulars. In order to have the whole business
arranged on the 3nd, and to throw the blame of the last and
most hateful steps upon Prussia, Sievers approved, if, as some
allege, he did not actually suggest the reservations. Buchholz,
on the contrary, was extremely dissatisfied, and wrote to the
king to induce him wholly to reject the arrangement sanctioned
by Sievers on the 3nd of September, and to insist upon the un-
conditional acceptance of the treaty.

This message from Grodno reached the Rhine precisely at the
period when the duke of Brunswick's successes against the French
at Pirmasens strongly disposed the king to lend the Austrians
further and vigorous support against the French, which the duke
of Brunswick and Lucchesini would have willingly prevented. On
the arrival of Buchhola's despatches, Lucchesini was summoned
to head-quarters, a great council of state was held and four reso-
lutions adopted, two of them apparently for the promotion of the
king's views against France, and two others to furnish him with
a becoming pretence for withdrawing from the army. With re-
gard to France it was resolved, first, that Prussia should unite
with the Austrians in an attack upon the French army on the
Rhine and Moselle; and secondly, that England and Austria
must indemnify Prussia for the expenses of the war. In refer-
ence to Poland, it was resolved tfaiat an extraordinary courier
should be immediately despatched to the court of Petersburg, in
order expressly to obtain the completion of the new treaty of
partition, and especially because the king was ftilfiUing and would
continue to fulfil his obligations towards his allies. At the same
time it was resolved that the king, without any previous an-
nouncement of his design, should immediately depart for his
Polish possessions. The whole afiair was so arranged as to fur-
nish the king an honourable pretence for withdrawing firom the
scene of war on the Rhine, of which he was become weary, and
for leaving the conduct of the cabals against the Austrians in
the hands of Lucchesini and the duke of Brunswick.

Long before the king's answer to Buchholz, refusing to allow
of any exceptions or conditions in the act of cession, reached its
destination, Sievers and Buchholz had withdrawn the whole con-
duct of the business from the confederation of Targowitsch, that

240 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

is^ from Kossakowski and his party, with whom it was difficult
to come to any result, and again transferred it to the weak Sta-
nislaus, who on his part was anxious again to acquire some new
importance, and with whom matters could be easily arranged.
On the 15 th of September a document was laid before the king
in his own chamber for signature, by virtue of which the Tar-
gowitsch confederation, which had hitherto continued to exist
and conduct all public affidrs, was declared null and void, and the
conduct of business exclusively confined to the king and the per-
manent council ; or, in other words, a new royal confederation
was formed. The king and a small number of persons secretly
signed the declaration, and on the following day this new act of
confederation was subscribed by all the members of the diet.
On the 21st the despatches arrived from head-quarters, and Sie-
vers immediately received some hints from his court, which in-
dicated to him the necessity of acting in the most conciliatory
and favourable manner towards Prussia in order to keep her
armies on the Rhine, and he forthwith adopted an entirely new
strain. Now, he rejected everything of which he had approved
on the 2nd, in a note dated on the 21st declared his complete
concurrence with the Prussian ambassador in all his demands,
and in a second note of the 23rd, that not one of the reservations
mentioned in the resolutions of the diet of the 2nd could be
suffered to be retained. Russia now required the speedy accept-
ance of the treaty of partition. The diet exhibited a disinclina-
tion to yield to these demimds, and four deputies were imme-
diately arrested and carried off by a guard of Cosacks*.

The scenes which followed at the meeting of the diet were in-
disputably far more disgraceful than those which were enacted
by the fish-women of Paris in the national assembly at Versailles
in October 1789. The diet was surrounded and overawed by
Russian soldiers ; general Rautenfeld sat in the assembly on an
arm-chair, in order to direct the seizure of every one by the
guard who did not speak exactly as the Russians desired. When
the time for voting arrived, every one remained silent. The mar-
shal repeated his call, but the general silence continued. At
length Rautenfeld appealed to the king, who was present, when
the latter excused himself by alleging that he was unable to do

* Their names were Krasnodembski^ Szydlowski, Mikaraki and Skarzynski.
The whole charge which Sievers brought against them in his note was that of
having praised die Jacobinical principles of the constitutional diet.

§ IV.] BBLOIAN AND POLISH RETOLUTIONS. 241

anything. Rautenfeld himself was perplexed as to his manner
of proceeding. At length he left the chamber^ consulted with
Sievers, returned to his place^ and in the name of the ambassa-
dor conveyed the most reproachful language and threats^ both
in words and in a note^ to the grand-marshal *; the silence how-
ever continued.

The incarcerated diet having, in spite of all threats, perse-
vered in maintaining an obstinate silence as their only reply to
the repeated demands made to them to acquiesce without reser-
vation in the act of cession in favour of Prussia, the marshal of
the diet at length interpreted their silence as consent, signed
the document in their presence, and the committee followed his
example; both he and the committee, however, entered their
protest on the same day, which was afterwards made public,
under the title of a declaration of the diet. Count Ankwitz,
deputy of Cracow, long known as one of the betrayers of his
country, and a man shameless enough to deny on one day what
he, to every one's knowledge, had done on the day before, suf-
fered himself to be still further used as a tool, and to be made
the instrument of a proposal to the diet to place the remainder
of the country in subjection to Russia^ after having in this man-
ner been compelled to cede the two-thirds of their territory.
This plan of subjection was concealed under the name of a
treaty of friendship and alliance with Russia. This new treaty,
consisting of fourteen articles, was then in like manner forced
upon the beleaguered diet and signed on the 14th of October
1793. The most disgraceful thing in this treaty appears to us
to be, — that it was said without any feeling of shame, that by
the Polish constitution, foreign afiairs, the right of peace and
war, &c. wefe made dependent on the will of Russia, because
Russia had rendered most important services to Poland.

It may be readily supposed that the most shameless betrayers
of their country were afterwards richly rewarded with what the
world calls high honours, with orders, in which Russia abounds,
and with the estates and lordships of which the friends of liberty

* Rautenfeld declared aloud to the king, in the presence of the assembly^
" that all the members of the diet should be compelled to remain in the cham-
ber till they had yielded ; and if these means proved insufficient to induce com-
pliance, he had orders to have recourse to force." In his note to the grand-
marshaJ the ambassador declared, "that the king himself should not be allowed
to leave the throne, and that he would oblige the senators to sleep upon straw
in the place of assembly, till they were prepared to submit to his will."

VOL. VI. R

242 FIFTH PBRIOD.— FIRST DTYISION. [CH. II.

were forciblj despoiled* Among the numerous gainers by their
treason^ the first places must be assigned to Bielinski^ marshal
of the diet, to the two deputies Ankwitz and Podhorski^ and
the two Kossakowskis, the bishop and the general. Oginski,
whose education and manners were French, did not suffer him-
self to be made a tool of on this occasion ; but from the account
which he gives in his ^Memoirs' of the character which he
played in Petersburg, Warsaw, and shortly afterwards as mini-
ster in Orodno, he proves himself to have been a mere common
man of the world, such as those are who have ruled in France
since 1830. For this reason, his accounts are the better calculated
to make us acquainted with the character of the king. From all
the speeches made by Oginski, from the measure of praise and
blame which he metes out, it may be gathered that Stanislaus
was a splendid and admirable courtier, rich in all the phrases of
politeness and vanity; a character, in short, who would have
made a sensation in the saloons of London, Paris, or Berlin, but
who was neither possessed of any sense of kingly dignity, nor
estimable as a man.

We pass over all the articles of this treaty of partition, be-
cause it, as well as the treaty of alliance, lost all their value
and efficacy as early as the following year. It need only be re-
marked in general, that by this treaty, Russia, in the midst of
peace, acquired a territory of more than 4000 square miles (Ger-
man) in extent, and containing above three millions of inhabit-
ants, whilst Prussia obtained more than 1000 square miles and
one million of people*. The diet of Poland, which was to con-
vert this spoliation into a legal acquisition, had, properly speak-
ing, only been called for a few weeks, but really continued its
sittings for five months. At its conclusion on the 2Srd of No-
vember, the last act was the complete and summary abolition of
all those improvements which had been made by the last diet,
and a resolution, that those laws alone should be regarded as
having any validity or force which had been in operation pre-
vious to 1788. The confederation of Targowitsch had also
passed and issued numerous decrees (sanciia) which hitherto

♦ Strictly speaking, Russia received 4157 square miles (German) of territory,
350 towns, 8783 villages, 574,654 houses, 3,055,500 inhabitants, and 24,660
soldiers ; Prussia, 1061 square miles of territory', 262 towns, 8274 villages,
195,016 houses and 1.136,389 people. There remained to Poland, 441 1 square
miles, 762 towns, 11,260 viUages, 625,248 houses, 3,468,808 inhabitants and
36,000 soldiers, of whom a part was kft to Prussia.

i IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBV0LT7TI0NS. 243

had possessed the force of laws. These however the majoritj
of the deputies wished to overthrow, and a committee was ap-
pointed to draw up a report on the subject for the diet. This
circumstance furnished the Kossakowskis and their adherents,
who had already used all possible means through Plato Suboff,
with an opportunity of making a new attempt to overthrow
Sievers the ambassador, the only man who, notwithstanding all
the severity of his words and actions, was not a genuine Rus-
sian, but still retained some feelings of kindness and shame ^*
Their object was to bring a new storm upon Poland. The com-
mittee frequently reported upon a great number of orders and
decrees (sancita) in a mass, so that the diet had no sufficient
opportunity of examining whether some of these reports did not
contain offensive materials ; and Sievers, who was by no means
well-disposed to the Targowitsch confederation, very willingly
consented to the abolition of all their resolutions. In conse*
quence of an oversight of this kind, that resolution was also
annulled by which the Targowitschers had abolished the mili-
tary orders and founded the constitutional diet, at the time in
which the Polish patriots took the field against the Russians in
1792. The designation of the order {virtuie militari) recalled
the recollection of the war of the patriots, and it was therefore
very imprudent in the patriots to utter loud rejoicings at the
precipitancy of the diet, and again to resume the insignia of
their order.

The Polish traitors turned the circumstance to account : Sie*
vers, who as ambassador had followed the king from Grodno to
Warsaw, was recalled in disgrace, and the offices of commander-*
in-chief of the Russian forces in Poland, as well as of political
representative, which had been hitherto conducted by Sievers,
were entrusted to Igelstrom. The oppression of the Poles be-
came daily more severe, instead of being diminished as had been
universally expected. A division of the army lay in PodoUa and
Volhynia, under the command of count Iwan Soltikoff, and
troops were stationed on the frontiers of Lithuania, from Minsk

* He was a relation of Sievers, who made his fortune under Elizabeth, and
from the humble business of a coffee-house-keeper was elevated to the dignity
of a count of the empire and grand-marshal of the court. This relation di-
rected his studies, procured for him situations in Livonia, and then brought
him to Petersburg, where he was appointed a councillor of state. He died aa
a senator, privy-councillor, &c. &c., and his son was afterwards created a
count.

r2

244 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. If.

to Riga, under prince Repnin. The Prussian general Schwerin,
with two divisions of his IVussians, covered South Prussia and the
banks of the Narew, whilst another Prussian cordon stretched
along the whole of the new boundary as far as Kowno, in the
ancient kingdom of Prussia. This Prussian cordon was con-
nected with the division of Russians under Igelstrom, which
occupied the portion of the territory still left to the Poles, and
whose head-quarters were at Warsaw. In that city Igelstrom
played the despot, and his behaviour was of such a character as
almost to convey the impression that his object was to provoke
an insurrection, in order to be furnished with an opportunity of
putting an end to the whole kingdom.

Igelstrom, by new Russian threats, first compelled the king
and the permanent council to restore all the laws of the Targo^
witsch confederation, which had been abrogated by the diet, with-
out any regard to the laws of the old constitution, and treated
the most illustrious and distinguished Poles like Russian sub-
alterns. Oginski, in his ' Memoirs,* recites a case which may
serve as an example. On an application being made to him, he
had the audacity to reply, that he must not be mistaken for a
Sievers, who suffered liberties to be taken with him. Such things
were calculated to give the deepest and bitterest offence to a
military aristocracy, who were vain and vehement like the French,
and provoked them to dare everything for their liberty. More-
over, it was not the two Potockis, the Oginskis, Kollontay, Mala-
chowski and other grandees who fled from their country who
were the first to peril their lives in its cause, — they had too
much to lose; and in 1794 as well as in 1831, by their calcu-
lating, weighing and balancing, they lost everything which
might have been gained by despair and reckless enthusiasm. It
was Zajonczeck and Kostschiesky or Kosciusko who roused and
animated the people.

The Potockis, Kollontay, Malachowski, Mostowsky, and many
other malcontents took up their residence in Dresden and Leip-
zig, and there formed a central point for the direction of the con-
spiracies in the interior of Poland, and sent their countryman
Bars to Paris, to open up communications with the committee of
general welfare, who however gave them nothing but fair words.
Th^ elector of Saxony protected these noble exiles even when
required by Russia to give them up, because they were the men
who had drawn up that constitution which would have brought

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. 245

him and his family to the throne of Poland. Zajonczeck la-
boured to promote the good cause in Warsaw^ whilst Kosciusko
first travelled to Constantinople, to rouse the Turks who had
been lulled into repose by the arts of Russian diplomacy, and
next to Paris ; but at the close of the year he was again at Sen-
domir, and because he was watched, went afterwards to Italy
till the outbreak of the insurrection throughout the whole of
Poland. At the same time Zajonczeck was in Warsaw, where
he won over the whole of the former Polish army, and, as a rich
banker, became a guarantee for the attempt to liberate their
country from the yoke of strangers and oppressors. The king
was informed of everything, but was deficient in courage to take
part in the undertaking ; he gave hints to the Russians of what
was in contemplation, and became anew a traitor to his country.
A system of persecution was commenced by the Russians ; Za-
jonczeck found it advisable again to retire to Dresden, and Igel-
strom resolved at least to make it impossible for the conspirators
to avail themselves of the regular troops and stores of the king-
dom for the promotion of their desperate designs. In the com-
mencement of the year 1794 he obtained from the king and the
permanent council the discharge of the greater part of the troops
which had been still kept on foot, and insisted upon Zajon-
czeck's banishment as soon as he returned from Dresden to War-
saw. This intelligence led to the determination to commence
the insurrection before the dissolution of the army, which the
king and his council, upon Igelstrom's command, had already
decreed. On this resolution, Kosciusko, who was appointed to
take the lead, returned from Italy to Sendomir, in order to raise
the banner of fireedom in Cracow, and to proclaim a war for the
deliverance of the country from its oppressors, although he him-
self never cherished any serious hopes of success.

Kosciusko, accompanied by several ofiicers and a small escort,
made his entry into Cracow on the 25th of March. The 500 Rus-
sians who were stationed in the city withdrew ; the 400 Poles who
were united with them joined his standard, and on the 24th he was
proclaimed generalissimo of the insurgent Poles, who now poured
in from all quarters. The first important reinforcement consisted
of a division of the standing army under the command of Mada-
linski, who joined him from Warsaw. The Sclavonian govern-
ment on Igelstrom's command had already reduced the army to
36,000 men, and it was now to be further diminished to the one«

246 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [OH. II*

half of that number. For this purpose it had been separated into
divisions^ and orders issued to the commanders of those divisions
to complete their dissolution. One of these divisions, under colonel
Madalinski, lay at Pultusk, eight hours from Warsaw. Mada*
linski at first delayed to act according to command, under the pre-
tence that two months^ arrears of pay were owing to his soldiers ;
he then undertook a rapid march through the districts of Sohac-
zew and Rawa, which were weakly occupied by the Prussians, to
New Miasto, and afterwards through Sendomir to Cracow.

The act of insurrection having once been made known, the
office of dictator for the. continuance of the war was at a later
period bestowed upon the generalissimo, because no one put any
trust in the king, and he was also in the power of the enemy.
Kosciusko called upon the whole youth of the palatinate of Cra-
cow, from eighteen to twenty-seven years of age, to take arms.
A system of patriotic requisitions, borrowed from the example of
the French republican government, was resorted to, in order to
provide for the maintenance of the army. In the meantime, Igel-
strom had despatched from Warsaw a body of 6000 or 7000
Russians to attack Madalinski before he should be able to reach
Cracow, and Kosciusko therefore left the latter city on the 1st
of April, to hasten to his aid. The insurgents fell in with the
Russians on the 4th near the village of Raslawicz, and defeated
them after an engagement of five hours' duration. A consi-
derable number of Russians were made prisoners, by the insur-
gents, and a stand of colours captured; and the easily-inflamed,
but also easily-cooled nation was roused to the greatest enthu-
siasm by the news of the victory.

During the period of Madalinski's pursuit and the following
days, Igelstrom, by his brutaUty towards an independent govern-
ment, which did everything he desired, contrived to embitter the
feelings of the whole people of Warsaw ; and at length he de-
manded the surrender of the arsenal, and threatened to seiase
upon it by force if it was not peaceably given up. He required
besides, that all those who had taken any part in the insurrec-
tion in the palatinate of Cracow should be declared enemies and
traitors. The Prussian ambassador also was obliged in like man-
ner to make complaints, and the Austrian representative to join
him, in order to disprove the commonly-prevailing opinion, that
Austria secretly favoured the Poles. Buchholz, the Prussian
ambassador, demanded satisfaction from the Polish government^

§ IV«] BBIiOIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTION8. 247

on account of the violation of the Prussian territory by Mada*
linski on his march ; the Austrian ambassador complained of the
calumnies circulated against his court, and afiirmed that it was
certainly resolved to make common cause with Russia and
Prussia. Stanislaus and his permanent council, as had always
hitherto been the case, allowed themselves to be made the in-
struments of discharging against their countrymen the bolts
which were foiled by the Russians in Petersburg* On the 11th
of April a proclamation was issued by the Polish government,
in which the conduct of the insurgents was characterized as un-
just and traitorous, and in express terms accused them of par-
ticipating iA the revolutionary opinions of the French. Besides
this, Igelstrom communicated to the servile government the
names of twenty*six persons of distinction whom he proposed to
arrest, as well as Ozarowski, grand-marshal of the crown, and
Zabiello, general of the camp of the Lithuanians, his plan for
disarming the whole Polish army on the 18th of April, and put-
ting the Russians in possession of their barracks, powder-maga-»
zines and arsenals. At this moment he received the unexpected
intelligence of the defeat of his Russians at Raslawicz.

Igelstrom no sooner received this intelligence, than he antici-
pated a general rising in Warsaw, and almost despaired of his
power to prevent it. On the 16th of April he wrote to the
Russian minister of war as follows: ^^The whole Polish army,
8000 strong, is in a state of rebellion ; and the confederates of
War8aw,Sendomir,Chelm, Wladimir and Luck oif;anized accord-
ing to Jacobinical principles. The insurrection acquires strength
every moment, developes itself rapidly and makes dreadful pro-
gress. Let Soltikoff 's army immediately advance and all will be

suppressed No reliance can be placed either upon Prussia

or Austria ; Qod knows what is become of them as powers sup-
posed to be terrible ! The Prussians are no longer what they
were under Frederick II. They appear only to keep on the
defensive, wish to proceed methodioslly, and fear everything.
Judge then of my melancholy situation, surrounded by enemies
and spies, without help or assistance either from our allies or
our troops.'^ The Poles, confederated for the restoration of the
constitution^of the 3rd of May 1791, assembled on the very day
on which this was written in the house of Kilinski, and drew up
the plan of a general insurrection, which was appointed to take
effect on the 17th and 18th. Both the citizens of Warsaw and

248 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. It.

the Poles who were in the army made a violent attack upon the
Russians in the city^ and a bloody struggle ensued in every
street. The Prussians^ who had a camp not far from Warsaw,
took DO measures for aiding the Russians^ and when the latter
were defeated^ the miserable Stanislaus Augustus became once
more enthusiastically patriotic. A Prussian general having asked
him, during the fight with the Russians in the city, whether he
was for or against the Poles who were engaged, he replied, that
he and his nation made only one, tlie Rusnans were their only
enemies f and the king flattered himself the Prussian general would
not commence hostilities upon them. The Russian garrison con-
sisted of 7948 men ; of that number 2265 were slain and 120
wounded in the two days during which the contest lasted.

This bloody struggle was afterwards continued till the 1st of
May, and during that time 1700 Russians were made prisoners.
The battle was the hottest in Igelstrom's palace, which was
stormed by the insurgents; but in the meantime an opportu-
nity was afforded to the general to escape into the IMissian
camp by means of a treaty for capitulation. After his flight the
people continued the storm, and were so enraged on account of
the numbers who were slain by the Russians, that when the
palace was taken they could not be restrained from plunder*
The archives, and consequently all the letters and documents,
furnishing ^indubitable proofs of the treachery and venality of
the great nobility, fell into the hands of the insurgents. It de-
serves to be mentioned, however, to the honour of the people of
Warsaw, that the regency no sooner issued a proclamation on
account of some bank-notes which were taken away, than the
notes, together with 95,000 florins which had been found in Igel-
strom^s treasury, were restored. In such a case as this, where
the whole chance of success was placed upon a cast, no reliance
could be placed upon the king, and a regency was therefore
established till the arrival of Kosciusko, which, on account of
the citizens of Warsaw, undoubtedly assumed somewhat of a
revolutionary form. The military administration was confer-
red upon general Makranowski, and the civil jurisdiction upon
Zakrzowski, formerly president of the city. These two persons,
who were among the most zealous advocates of the constitution
which it was proposed to restore, were to be assisted by a coun-
cil of regency, consisting of six noblemen and an equal number
of citizens.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. 249

The Russians were in like manner surprised in Wilna, Lublin
and Chelm, and in each case a greater or less number taken
prisoners or slain. In Lithuania as well as in Poland, a re-
gency was appointed, in which Wielhorski, Jassinski and Oginski
played the chief parts. Many bloody scenes were enacted in
Wilna, and one of the Kossakowskis, who accidentally happened
to be in that city, was seized upon and executed in a manner
which recalled the Parisian mode of dealing with those who were
regarded as enemies of the people. Similar scenes occurred in
Warsaw on the 27th and 28th of June. The maddened people
exerdsed summary and cruel justice upon some of the selfish
nobles, because they possessed abundant proofs, that most of
these men, in the previous years, had allowed themselves to be
used as tools and were afterwards betrayed. The second of the
Kossakowskis, Zabiello, Ozarowski, the primate bishop Mas-
salsky, count Ankwitz, and six or seven other persons of emi-
nence and distinction, were on this occasion executed without
trial or conviction, — a proceeding wholly incapable of being de-
fended, but easily explained from the existing state of feeling.
Unfortunately Kosciusko was prevented by the course of the
war and the threatening preparations of the king of Prussia
from proceeding rapidly to Warsaw and there assuming the
dictatorship.

The king of Prussia having renounced the war with France
on his own account and withdrawn from the Rhme, had left
Mollendorf behind in command of an army, which rendered very
trifling services indeed for the large subsidies which were re-
ceived on its account. The king went to Posen, and the prince of
Nassau, who was at that time in the Russian service, to Peters-
burg in order to concert measures with the empress for the sup-
pression of the insurgents, and his council of war got on foot
sixty battalions and ninety squadrons to oppose them. Schwe-
rin was no longer in favour with the king, and till he himself
arrived, the interim command was conferred on general Favrat.
Buchholz was recalled from Warsaw, and the Polish resident
Zablosky was detained as a hostage for his safe return, although,
in fact, war had not been proclaimed by Prussia. Unhappily
the whole unlucky band of Prussian intriguers followed the king
on the 14th of May, from Potsdam to Posen. Among these were
general Bischoffswerder and colonel Mannstein, the princes.
Yon Yoss minister of state, and Lucchesini the Italian, whose

250 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

friend Haugwitz was also expected, because on his arrival at
Berlin from the Rhine on the 14th he no longer found the king
in that city. All these people began again to speak of diplo-
matists, notes and protocols, and of a congress in whieh Luc*
chesini was to play a part ; but the Poles had no eonfidence what-
ever in a man who had so ahamefully betrayed them, and the
empress of Russia would not listen to any negotiations ; the
Prussians were therefore compelled to make up their minds
to a struggle with the desperate and despairing Poles. The
Poles prepared to meet them, as Kosciusko thought it advisable
to come to an issue before they were joined by the Russian
army.

The Russians then in Poland were under the orders of Deni*
Boff and preparing to attack Cracow. Kosciusko endeavoured
to come up with the Prussians before they formed a junction
with the Russians, but proved unable to prevent Favrat from
joining the troops under Denisoff in the beginning of June, pre-
cisely at the very moment in which the Poles, on the 6th of June,
were about to attack them at Jendrziow, about four hours from
Szczecocyny. Kosciusko was not aware that 24,000 Prussians,
under the immediate command of the king, were advancing in
another direction. At the very moment in which the victory
was in the hands of the Poles, this new army appeared in the
field on their left wing, and Kosciusko was obliged to withdraw
with the loss of 1000 men and eleven pieces of cannon*, and to
give up his retreat to Cracow. The glory of the day however
remained with the Poles ; for Kosciusko retired not only without
loss from what the Prussians boastingly call the battle of Szcze^
coqffiy, but, although surrounded and pressed on all sides by
Russians and Prussians, they were unable to prevent him from
reaching Warsaw by a circuitous march through Radom, and he
entered the capital on the 10th of July. The war being now
concentrated around Warsaw, the deUverance of Poland was no
longer possible, and the contest became a struggle between ven-
geance and despair.

The Poles were unable to hold their ground in Lithuania, un-
less aid was given them by Kosciusko, and as he was unable to
afford them any, Zajonczeck was defeated at Chelm on the very
day on which Kosciusko retreated from Szczecocyny. A small

* The king of Prussia, in his despatch to his cabinet-minister Von Alvens-
leben, states the loss of Uie Poles at 2000 men and 13 pieces of cannon.

§ ly.] BELGIAN AND POLISH BBVOLUTIONS. 251

division of the Prussians appeared before Cracow^ and Winia-
nowski, to whom Kosciusko had entrusted the command, and
who had previously shown himself to be a brave and skilful
officer, surrendered the city on the 15 th of June, under circum-
stances of such suspicion, that Kosciusko caused his name to be
nailed to the gallows. At the same time it was resolved in Thu-
gut's and the prince of Coburg's council in Austria, to carry
on the war with France merely for English subsidies, and as
far as these subsidies reached, but to turn their chief attention
to Poland, where Prussia threatened to become by much too
powerful. The chief forces of the Russians were yet only ad-
vancing, the regency in Warsaw however had already dedared
war against Prussia in a manifesto signed by Potocki, before
Kosciusko's entrance into the city, and the Prussians therefore
immediately attacked Warsaw, in which the main body of the
Poles was now united. The city, it is true, may be said to have been
fortified to a certain extent, but the Poles placed their chief re-
liance upon four fortified camps, which had been formed around
it in such a manner as to communicate with one another and to
enclose a large fortified space of ground. The Polish army
around Warsaw was wholly commanded by men who afterwards
became distinguished under Napoleon, their general-in-chief
being Kosciusko, acknowledged even by Suwarrow to be a hero.
Among the number of these brave men was also Joseph Ponia-
towsky, who was drowned in the Elster after the battle of Leip-
zig, and was on this occasion first defeated by the Prussian ge«
neral Ootz. Kosciusko occupied the camp of Mokotow, which
was nearest to the city ; those at Wola were defended by Dom-
browski and Zajonczeck, whilst the fourth at Mariemont was
entrusted to the command of Makranowski. The suburb of
Praga was also fortified, and the whole body of the citizens of
Warsaw armed and in the field. Both wings of the Polish army
were covered by the Vistula. As early as June, Russia, through
Thugut, had first induced the emperor Francis to leave his army
in the Netherlands, on account of the state of affairs in Poland ;
and secondly, count Rasumowsky, the Russian ambassador in
Vienna, was despatched to the emperor in Frankfort to submit
to him proposals for a new partition of Poland. Immediately
on his arrival in Vienna, the emperor had given orders to secure
for 'Austria a share in the Polish spoils, before Rasumowsky was
able to deliver his despatches, because he bad missed the emperor

252 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION* [CH.II.

in Frankfort. When therefore the Prussians first seriously com-
menced operations for the siege of Warsaw, the emperor Francis
caused general Harmoncourt to advance with an army into Little
Poland ; and on this occasion the general issued a proclamation
in which he declared, that his object in marching into the Po-
lish territories was to guard against the dangers to which the
frontiers of Oallicia might be exposed by the disturbances in
Poland.

On the advance of the royal Prussian army against Warsaw,
its numbers were stated to amount to 40,000, supported by a
division of Russians 10,000 strong, under general Fersen. All
those who were acquainted with the retinue by which the king
of Prussia was attended, and the generals whom he employed,
anticipated from the first little success firom this methodical ex-
pedition against Warsaw, conducted quite in the ancient Prus-
sian fashion ; and in fact, the expedition against Warsaw termi-
nated still more disgracefully than even that in Champagne in
1792. Before the commencement of the attack, the Prussians
were concentrated about an hour fi-om the city, near Wola and
Mariemont Count Schwerin, who was as incapable as he was
presumptuous, held the chief command, whilst the king had esta-
blished his head-quarters in the centre of the army, and issued
his orders through his favourite and adjutant-general von Mann-
stein. Mannstein was continually at open hostility with the
prince of Nassau and general Fersen, and therefore with the
Russians. The bombardment was commenced at the end of
July. This indeed drew firom king Stanislaus a whining and
cowardly letter, and yet at the commencement of August, when
the city was summoned to surrender, he was obliged to acknow-
ledge that the answer did not depend upon him, but upon
Kosciusko, who was not alarmed at the first cannon-shot. The
siege was prolonged during the month of August ; the shells
thrown by the enemy did very little mischief to the city; and
although the assaults made upon the four Polish camps around
the town were attended with partial success, they led to no deci-
sive result. At length the Prussians began to be apprehensive
of being attacked in the rear, in consequence of the impending
revolt of the Polish provinces which had been taken possession
of in the previous year.

From the 16th of August there were also daily engagements
with the Poles in the open field, in which Joseph Poniatowsky^

§ lY.] BKLQIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 253

Dombrowski and Poninski signalized their skill and courage.
The Poles maintained their positions in all directions^ till the
news arrived in the Prussian camp, that on the 21st and 22nd
an insurrection had really broken out in the Prusso-Polish pro*
vinces. On the receipt of this news, it was resolved to attempt
a general assault, and in case this did not succeed, to raise the
siege. In consequence of this resolution, an assault was made
along the whole line on the 28th of August. The assault ended
in a general engagement, because the Prussians, who wished to
confine their operations to an attack upon Dombrowski alone,
were unexpectedly assailed by Zajonczeck with the division under
his command. Tlie Poles maintained their positions on this oc*
casion also, and the king immediately ordered steps to be taken
for breaking up the siege. In order to comprehend this, we
must bear in mind that the insurgents had already defeated a
Prussian division at Fraustadt, made themselves masters of the
towns of Kalitsch and Posen, and seized upon some transports
from Breslau to Warsaw. They had even penetrated into
Upper Silesia, and it was necessary forthwith to despatch 4000
men from the besieging army into that province. At last a
courier brought intelligence that Madalinski had occupied Brom-
berg, and that Danzig, Culm, Graudenz and even Pomerania
were threatened.

The miserable intriguers by whom the king of Prussia was
surrounded exa^erated the dangers to which his army was ex-
posed, and succeeded in effecting this disgraceful retreat ; Mann-
stein however was not able to deceive general Zajonczeck in the
same way in which he deceived his king. Mannstein was com-
pletely unsuccessful in a conference which he proposed with a
view to arrange terms of agreement. The attempt to induce
the Poles to agree to a suspension of arms also proved unsuc-
cessful, and the Russians under Fersen first withdrew and took
up their quarters in the palatinate of Lublin ; on the 6th of
September they were followed by the Prussians in three divi-
sions. The first marched to Czenstochau, the second to Pe-
trikau, and the third to Zakroczyn; their withdrawal was so
precipitate, that it resembled a rapid flight ; and they left be-
hind them many sick and wounded as well as large quantities
of baggage at Bakoczyn, three hours firom Warsaw. AU that
can be said to throw light upon the obscurity which rests upon
the sudden retreat of the Prussians, and for its excuse or de-

254 PIPTfl PERIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH, Ii;.

fence^ appears to us to have been said by Oginski^ in the pass-
age of his * Memoirs' which we subjoin*.

Madalinski was despatched by Kosciusko to pursue the Prus-
sians and support the insurgents^ but he suffered a defeat on the
Narew and was driven back ; Dombrowski, on the other hand^
proved more successful. He and Madalinski pushed forward to
Bromberg, Gnesen was occupied by the Poles on the 27th of
September^ Poniatowsky also sent from Blonin to aid the insur*
gents, and even Pomerania and Brandenburg were threatened,
for Dombrowski and Madalinski had obtained very considerable
magazines in Bromberg. Another army of 2000 men, under
the prince of Hohenlohe, now advanced against Poland, where
the extension of these expeditions against Prussia brought great
glory to the Poles, but at the same time proved the ruin of their
cause, because at that very time a new Russian army under
Suwarrow was advancing by forced marches against Warsaw.

Since the peace with the Turks, Suwarrow had remained for
two years at the head of an army which was scattered about in
the provinces of Ekaterinoslaw and Tauria, from Oczakow to
the mouth of the Dniester. His head-quarters were at Cherson,
when he received the command immediately to proceed to Po-
land. At the end of May he appeared suddenly in Red Russia
at the head of 12,000 Russians, disarmed 8000 men of the Polish
army, whom he had surrounded, and then assumed the chief
command of the whole Russian army in Poland. Having ap-
pointed the frontier-town of Warkowitsch as the rendezvous of
the troops, he himself with 8500 men, on the 14th of August

• Oginski in hia Memoirs, part ii. p. 10, says : "The whole of Euiope was
astonisned at the retreat of 4000 Pnissians, and a great variety of sopposi*
tions throw a veil of obscurity over the affair. There were some who ascribed
it to the empress of Russia, and were of opinion that she was far from wishing
the capital of Poland to fall into the hands of the Prussians ; others ascribed
it to the dislike of the empress to Frederick William, who proved himself un-
able with such a superior force to put down a mere mass of insurgents, and
reports were even put into circulation that this had led to a breach between
Russia and Prussia. Others alleged that the numerous c&ses of desertion in
the Prussian army, and the diseases which had broken out among the troops
in consequence of the hardships of the service and the want of necessary sup-
plies, were the true reasons for raising the siege. All these reasons might have
had some injtuence, but they did not constitute the chirf grounds, for the true cause
of this retreat must be ascribed to the insurrection alone which had broken out
in the rear of the Prussian army, and continually became more extensive in those
provinces which had lately fallen to the lot of Prussia."

At the conclusion of the chapter Oginski describes the first commencement
and reasons of this insurrection, its rapid extension after the confederation of
the 22nd of August, and the surprise of the Prussians in Sieradcz on the 23rd.

§ IV.] BELGIAN AND POLISH REVOLUTIONS. 255

1 794^ set out from Niemeroffj* which lies at a distance of eighty-
four hours' march from Warkowitsch, and in spite of the dread-
ful condition of the roads, reached that city in eight days. Su-
warrow himself, sitting upon a cosack horse, was always among
the foremost, lived on the same fare as his soldiers, and cheer-
fully shared all their labours and privations. The various divi-
sions of the army were no sooner assembled, than, after a short
period of repose, he marched against a Polish army of 20,000
men under Sierakowski, who had been sent to arrest his pro-
gress. In the first engagement, on the 18th of September 17^4,
this Polish army suffered no inconsiderable loss, but succeeded
in regaining its camp. Suwarrow however gave the weary Poles
no rest ; he followed close upon their footsteps and renewed the
engagement on the 19th. On this day almost the whole of the
PoUsh army was destroyed^ and their artillery became the spoil
of the Russians*.

From the battle-field Suwarrow advanced directly upon War-
saw, and the terror of his name flew before him. Kosciusko re-
solved to do his uttermost before the Russians reached Warsaw.
He first hastened to Sierakowski and furnished him with new
troops, in order to enable him to obstruct and harass Suwarrow
in his march ; then to Grodno, and directed Makranowski with
the army of Lithuania to put himself in the rear of the Russians ;
and finally sped back to his camp at Mokotow, broke up his
quarters and sought out Fersen to attack him, before he could
form a junction with Suwarrow. This last march contributed to
the downfall of Poland, because Poninski, whose services were
calculated, failed twice, from want of skill or bad luck, or from a
wavering disposition, to meet the expectations of a hero, who did
incredible things. Kosciusko had taken up a position at Mac-
ziewice, an estate of count Zamoyski, nearly fifty miles from
Warsaw, in the palatinate of Lublin ; Poninski was despatched
with a division in order to obstruct Fersen^s passage of the Vis-
tula, till Kosciusko should have crossed the river and fallen upon
him on the other side, and there to form a junction with him ;
but he neither succeeded in preventing the Russians from effect-
ing the passage, nor did he come to his aid, although he was only
fifteen miles distant from the spot where the fate of Poland was
decided. Poninski missed the point at which Fersen proposed

* According to the Rassian accounts, of 13,000 men only 300 escaped)
500 were taken prisoners and all the rest slain, and 20 pieces of cannon taken.

256 FIFTH PEHIOD.— FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II.

to cross, and whilst he was making preparations to dispute the
passage at one place, Fersen crossed at another and immediately
stormed the camp of the Poles (10th October 1794).

Kosciusko and his Poles, who continued to place a vain re-
liance upon Poninski, fought with all the courage of despair, and
the Russians were compelled to pay dear for the victory of Mac-
ziewice ; but for that reason it was complete. Six thousand Poles
lay dead upon the field; 1600, for the most part severely wounded,
were made prisoners, among whom was Kosciusko, three other
generals, and the whole of the staff. Up till this time Suwarrow
had remained at Brzesk, but afler Fersen's victory he formed a
junction between the two armies at Stanislawow. The Russian
army now amounted to 30,000 men, of whom however only 22,000
could be brought into the field; notwithstanding this, Suwar-
row resolved to storm the fortified lines of the suburb of Praga,
which were defended by 30,000 Poles under Makranowski. This
suburb of Warsaw was protected by three fortified lines, pro-
vided with 104 cannon and mortars of great calibre, whilst Su->
warrow had no heavy artillery and only eighty-six field-pieces ;
he therefore resolved to attack the Poles, as he had done the
Turks, with the bayonet. Praga was the key to Warsaw, but
before it was possible to approach the fortified lines by which it
was surrounded, the entrenched camp, which was situated in
front of the lines and in which the PoUsh army was lying, must
first be carried. In order to understand how so great a general
as Suwarrow was could venture to think of a storm under such
circumstances, we must remember that Fersen had annihilated
the greatest of the Polish generals and their choicest troops, and
that the Poles by whom Suwarrow was opposed were like the
Turkish armies, and like them might be attacked and terrified
by the bayonet*.

Zajonczeck had already assumed the chief command of the

Poles instead of Makranowski, when Suwarrow, on the 22nd of

October, marched fi'om Koblynka, and at 10 o'clock in the

morning appeared in sight of the camp before Praga. Two days

were spent in making preparations for storming the camp, and

on the 24th, Suwarrow having divided his army into four columns,

took the entrenchments of the Poles by storm. In this afiiedr

* Suwarrow was indisputably a great general ; he was neither impelled to
action by foolhardiness nor the love of slaughter ; but still he remained a
genuine Russian. Neither Marlborough nor Buonaparte ever spared their men
when a victory was in question.

§ IV.] BBLOIAN AND POLISH RBVOLUTIONS. 257

1000 Poles were driyen into the Vistula^ 2000 cut down^ and as
many taken prisoners. Suwarrow had previously used extraor-
dinary expedition in order to anticipate the Prussians, who, after
the suppression of the insurrection in Great Poland, were again
advancing against Warsaw ; after therefore having succeeded in
storming the camp, circumstances did not permit him to spare
blood in order to make himself master of the city, although it
must have been quickly compelled to capitulate to the united
forces of the Russians and Prussians^ without the necessity of
having recourse to that fearful slaughter to which SUwarrow gave
occasion. Preparations continued to be made till the 4th of No-
vember for storming the fortified lines, and every human being
in Warsaw dUpable of bearing arms crowded to Pi*aga Ih order
to defend the works. The Russians stormed and finally took the
trenches after a bloody fight, which lasted for five hours. We
dare hot venture to pronounce how many persons were slain by
them in this murderous affair, but certain it is, that iii theif re-
ports they diminish their own loss, till their assertion becomes
ridiculous. Within the trenches the struggle was commenced
anew between the desperate Poles and the enraged Russiansi
The scene of carnage was so dreadful as to make a more detailed
account of its horrors revolting, and although posterity will not
cease to admire SuwarroVs bravery and military skill, his name
must ever be associated with those of Attila and Tamerlane.
First of all, 8000 Poles were cut down in the fight, — then women^
children and old men were murdered^ the houses set on fire and
the bridges burnt, so that the crowds who attempted to seek for
safety or protection in the city were Remorselessly driven into thd
Vistula. The buildings were speedily reduced to heaps of ashes
and rubbish, and buried their inhabitants tinder their ruins^
According to the authority of sources which we have no means of
verifying, 12,000 human beings met their death on this eventful
occasion, which united with the 8000 who fell in the defence of
the trenches, make up the number of 20,000 Poles, who paid the
forfeit of their lives in one day in and near Praga.

Warsaw itself capitulated on the 5th of November, and in th^
terms of the capitulation, was delivered up to the Russians on
the 6th. Poland was now annihilated. One division of its troopii
after another was disarmed, and all the generals and officers who
could be seized were carried off. The king however, who could
be induced to do anything if his comforts were spared, was used

VOL. VI. 8

258 FIFTH PERIOD. — FIRST DIVISION. [CH. II. § IV.

as an instrument to give to power the impress of right. He was
again placed apparently at the head of the kingdom till the
spoilers had agreed upon the division of the spoil. It was ne-
cessary that Austria should be admitted to participate in the
booty, for so Catharine had promised, when Thugut called the
good emperor to return from the Rhine to Vienna; the share
however was small, although the negotiations respecting the par-
tition were prolonged for two years. Suwarrow held a splendid
military court for a year in Warsaw, far eclipsing the king, till
at length the city was given up to the Prussians : as early as the
commencement of the year 17^5, Stanislaus was sent to Grodno.
In this city the king continued to live upon a pension, till he
was subjected to the humiliation of being ordered to Petersburg
by Paul I., after having been thrown into the shade by Repnin
in Grodno, who, as governor-general of the provinces incorpo-
rated with Russia, lived in royal pomp and luxury. A fuller
account of the chief circumstances connected with the last parti-
tion of Poland, and the manner and time of its being carried into
effect, will all be best learned from the words of Oginski, which
we therefore subjoin in a note*.

* For this purpose we present our readers with the conclusion of the fourth
chapter, part ii. of Oginski's Memoirs. He first states, that the whole of the
year 1795 was spent in negotiations with Prussia, and that the last treaty for
the partition of Poland was not signed till the 24th of October 1795. In De-
cember Suwarrow travelled from Warsaw to Petersburg, where the empress ap-
Eropriated the Taurian palace for his residence and nominated a special house*
old for his service. On the 1st of January 1796, Warsaw was first given up
to the Prussians, and negotiations were carried on till the 21 st of Octot^r 1796,
respecting the boundaries of the palatinates of Warsaw and Cracow. By vir-
tue of this partition, first finally arranged in October 1796, Austria obtained
the chief parts of the waiwodeship of Cracow, the palatinates of Sendomir
and Lublin, together with a portion of the district of Chelm and portions of
the waiwodeships of Brzesk, Podalachia and Massovia, which lie along the left
bank of the Bug. All these districts contain about 834 German square miles.
Prussia received those portions of Massovia and Podalachia which touch upon the
right bank of that river, in Lithuania those parts of the palatinates of Troki and
Samogitia which lie to the left of the Niemen, and, finally, a district in Little
Poland which belonged to the waiwodeship of Cracow, making in all about
1000 German square miles. Russia received the whole of what had hitherto
been Polish Lithuania as far as the Niemen and to the frontiers of the wai-
wodeships of Brzesk and Nowogrodek, and from thence to the Bug, together
with the greater part of Samogitia. In Little Poland she obtained that part
of Chelm which lies on the right bank of the Bug and the remainder of Vol-
hynia, in all about 2000 Cxerman square miles. During the negotiations for
the partition, Russia caused Stanislaus Augustus to lay down the crown ; since
he obeyed, as he had always done, the Russian commands to such a degree,
that on the 25th of November 1795, he signed his own resignation in return
for the means of luxury. The three partitioning powers ensured him a yearly
income of 200,000 ducats and promised to pay his debts. The emperor Paul I.
called him to Petersburg, where he died on Uie 12th of February 1798.

FIFTH PERIOD OF THE EIGHTEENTH
CENTURY.

SECOND DIVISION.

FROM THE TIME OF THE COALITION AGAINST THE
NEW CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE TILL THE TRUCE
OF UDINE, WHICH PRECEDED THE PEACE OF CAMPO
FORMIO.

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE, AUSTRIA. PRUSSIA. ENGLAND TILL THE ESTA-
BLISHMENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

§1.

FRANCE TILL THE APPOINTMENT OF A GIRONDIST MINISTRY.

At the moment in which the first French national assembly,
which gave the nation a new constitution, was dissolved on the
20th of September 17^1, the deputies of the second, commonly
called the legislative assembly, had been already chosen. This
assembly was to confirm and extend the basis of the new consti*
tution by a new system of legislation, suitable to the complete
change which had been effected in all the relations of the coun-
try ; its sittings were opened on the 1st of October. The new
assembly was opened under circumstances which augured very
unfavourably for the restoration of public order, and the found*
ing and maintenance of a constitutional government in the new
kingdom. None of the deputies belonging to the first assembly
were elected as members of the second, because they had passed
a self-denying ordinance and expressly excluded themselves from
the number of those eligible ; nor was there any one in the new
assembly who was any representative of the spirit and genius of
the previous one, whose work also the government did not fa-

s2

260 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

vour. Every one however saw that great changes must be
adopted in the new constitution, if it was to become permanent.
The new deputies were sworn to be faithful to the constitution,
but there was scarcely one of them who was disposed to adhere
strictly to the letter of his oath ; on the contrary, the majority
in the first sitting declared war against it In reference to the
court, which through the queen drove the vacillating Idng hither
and thither, the memoirs of madame Campan furnish abundant
proofs, that one continuous system of conspiracy, emanating from
the highest quarters, was maintained against the constitution
and its principles, although it could not then be proved by docu-
ments, as has become possible since the restoration. We have
at present the documentary proofs in our hands, in which the
originators of those cabals, which were carried on nominally
in favour of the king, but really against the constitution, boast of
their ingenuity and skill ; it can be documentarily proved that
the emigrants, who negotiated with foreign powers for the re-
storation of their privileges, were earnestly supported by the
plenipotentiaries of the king and queen.

The best account of the course pursued by what was then
called the Austrian committee in the cabinet may be found in
the memoirs of a man, who klthough he was only properly
speaking minister of the colonies, was yet entrusted with the
execution of all those miserable measures which affected internal
politics^ This person, whose ti^thfhlness fortns no part of our
present consideration in this place, because we are only speaking
of evil intentions^ of which both he and bis friends were tfcdus-
tomed to boast, was Bertrarid de MoIeviUe^ chief of what is tidw
called a camarilla^ and to whose own words we direct the atteti^
tion of our readers*. Montmorin also, the minister of foreign
affairs, belonged to the queen's camarilla^ who in herself was
not much to blame, as she considered every thiog which occtirred
according to her own womanly and personal views : this minister
was so vehemently attacked by Delacroix and Couthon in the
first sitting of the legislative assembly that be was obliged to
resign his office. NeckePs intimate friend Anton de Yeid^c
Delessart was then minister of the interior, but left his portfolio
to Cahier de Oerville, and to his misfortune succeeded Mont-
morin. Duportail was minister of war, into whose situation, at

* See ' Histdire de ta fiivolution/ vol. viJ. chap. iiv. p. 1220, &c. ; and also
Yot. viii. p. 76 atid p. Sll.

§ I.] FBANOB Tllili KABOH 1792. 261

a later period, De Stael and her friends brought Narbonne,
who was a man of regular habits of life and a good tone. The
department of justioe fell to the lot of Duport de Tertre, and
that of finance to Tarbe.

Among the 745 members of whom the legislative assembly
was composed, there were 800 advocates, 70 priests who had
taken the oath, and a very smell number of landed proprietors,
and the greater part of the deputies were men who had scarcely
passed the prescribed age of thirty years ; moreover there were
some frieodii of monarchy among the deputies, for Matthieu
Dumas, Stanislaus Oirardin, fiecquey, Hun, De Jaucourt, Ra-
mon, LaouiSe, Cesser, Lacepede, Cluatremere de duincy, and
Viennot Vaublanc gavp abundant proofr in the times of the
empire and the restoration, that they were no visionary repub-
licans. The enthusiasm for the regeneration of the nation, or
rather the fear of being accused of the least want of patriotism,
was notwithstanding so great, that the most pilident men
thought it advisable to adopt the tone of the most vehement
opposition. This is exemplified in the case of Pastoret. Pas-
toret did not belong to the class of young advocates who are
eagerly looking out either to make their fortune or obtain renown.
He bad been already eleven years a pubUc man, first as coun-
cillor of the treasury and then maitre dei requites, and when St.
Priest WBM obliged to relinquish his situation in 17M> he had
been for a short time even minister of the interior. On the in-
troduction of the constitution, he filled two of the most important
offices in the departmental administration of Paris, of which
Talleyrand and Larochefoucault were members (he was preeideai
etprocureur eyndie of the department), and notwithstanding all
this, be, as president of the legislative assembly, addressed a very
insulting speech to the king on the 7tb of October. On that
day the king presented himself in the assembly, and addressed a
few friendly words to its members, when Pastoret delivered him
a severe Lecture*.

The conspiracy of feudalists, hierarchs and courtiers did not
allow the friends of the constitution to offer any resistance to
the conspiracies of clubists, and to those who. wished to make

* " Uae constitution est n^e, et avec elle la libeiii francaise. Vous (thie king)
devez la ch^rir comme citoyen ; comme roi, vous devez la maintepir et la de-
fiepdre. Loin d'^branler votre puissance, elle I'a raffermie. La constitution
vous a fait le premier monarque du monde."

262 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I*

their fortune by the revolution; for if they did not wish to
suffer all things to relapse into the old condition; they dare not
venture to put the law into execution against these private asso-
ciations. All clubs and organized associations^ which therefore
included those of the sections and electors^ were expressly for-
bidden by the constituent assembly to erect themselves into
corporations^ or to make or publish any decrees ; and in order
to put an end to the fearful mischief which resulted from this
source^ this law should have been put into execution*; but the
men of intelligence among the members of the legislative body
soon saw that nothing whatever could be done with the Bour-
bons. In the eyes of the king and queen, all constitutional
forms were either ridiculous or hateful; the princes and other
emigrants in Coblenz protested formally and publicly against
them, and therefore the friends of a limited monarchy were com-
pelled to take part with the enthusiastic republicans of the jaco-
bin club. The republicans, who at that time were still united,
first began in 1792 to give free expression to their opinions, and
afterwards fell into two parties, the one of which was foolishly
anxious by their speeches and theories to establish a republic
in France on the model of Geneva ; and the other, first to pur->
sue and destroy everything old, to create a universal fermenta-
tion among the great masses of the people, and afterwards to
found new social relations. The former party consisted of the
lawyers of Normandy, Brittany and the seaports of the south,
and because its best speakers came from Bordeaux, was called
the Gironde ; whilst the latter, afterwards called the Mountain, or
the proper jacobins of the reign of terror, — men without shame
or fear, who neither shrunk at blood nor murder, and afterwards
formed a smaller club out of the large jacobin society, — met in
the convent of the Franciscans, and for that reason were called
CardeUers.

Among the most distinguished men of the Gironde, or of those
republicans whose views were fixed upon a republic formed and

* One of the latest laws of the constituent assembly (of the 29th Sep-
tember 1791) forbids " k toute soci^t^ non institute politiquement, de faire
corporation, de paraitre legalement sous un nom collectif et de prendre des d^i-
sions sur les affaires poUtiques. Les contrevenaos seront poursuivis et punts,**
Had the law been really carried into execution, there would have been an end
to all the public disturbances ; but the jacobin club, in which no members of
the legislature remained after August 1791, except Roderer, Potion, Robes-
pierre, Buzot, Antoine and Coroller, continued to hold its sittings in contempt
of the decree, and in November became more dreadful than ever.

§ iJ] FRANCB TILL KAROH 1792* 263

ruled by educated men of the middle classes^ may be enume-
rated the advocates Guadet, Yergmaud and Gensonn^ who were
all from the department of the Gironde, which gave its name to
the party ; Isnard^ a merchant from the department of the Var,
professors Koch^ Arbogast and Kom of Strasburg, the marquis
Condorcet, celebrated as an able dialectician and academic phi*
losopher^ and especially Brissot, by whose name the party was
afterwards designated by those who wished to expose it to public
hatred. Brissot de MarriUe had travelled in North America and
published an account of his journey : he was fiUed with admira-
tion of the democracy of the states, and therefore approached
much nearer than any of his friends to the vehement jacobins^
but was nevertheless of opinion, that it would be better for France
not to have everything centralized in Paris. This opinion was
regarded as a mortal sin by the Parisians, and therefore they
were easily made the instruments of the enemies of Brissot and
his friends. Gr^ire was not a member of the second assembly
because he had occupied a seat in the first; he had become
bishop of Blois, and influenced by his strong jansenist zeal,
appointed the filthy capuchin Chabot to be his vicar-general.
The latter then played a most disgraceful character in the legis-
lative assembly, the convention and the jacobin club, which
has been often cast as a severe reproach on the good-natured,
pious and visionary bishop*. In the convention, Chabot was
surrounded by known rascals ; in this second assembly by the
most vehement members of the jacobin club and all such as
delight to fish in troubled waters. Among these we may men-
tion the names of Merlin de Thionville, Bazire, Couthon, Thi-
riot, Quinette and others. The communes of Paris had completely
slipped out of the hands of the constitutionalists, who composed
the council of the department.

Robespierre filled the o£Sce of public prosecutor or attorney-
general in the criminal court of Paris, but he had not yet ob-
tained full dominion in the jacobin club, in which he was eclipsed
by the powerful eloquence of the girondists. He and Camille
Desmoidins, who, from his fanaticism in favour of his notions of
freedom, became the organ of the cordeliers, after the complete
introduction of the constitution obtained the government in the
country, because there were innumerable men in Paris, as well

* The author of this history can testify from his own knowledge that this
was toeU known to Gr^goire.

264 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8E0OMD DIVISION. [CH. I.

as in the spialler towns, who although of no previous rank or con*
sideration, had been elevated to places of honour and power,
and who regarded the most violent declaimers as the best par
triots. The employments, business, emoluments and honours
therewith connected, fell to the lot of the poorer classes as spon
as the richer and more distinguished either withdrew or hire4
substitutes, because they abhorred the tone given by such a
monster as Marat, or shrunk from coming into contact with
such resolute people as afterwards sent J^egendre the butcher as
their representative to the convention, where be spoke their
opinions. After the autumn of 1 791 Danton became the organ of
the municipality of Paris, which constituted a democratic rer
public, and afterwards assumed to itself the name of the sove-
reign people: his of&ce was next in influence to that of the
procureur iyndic, as whose substitute he acted. Marat wrote
'L^Ami du Peuple' (The People's Friend) in the fearfully ener-
getic style of those who, before the public tribunals, treat all
principles of law, justice and custom with the most ^udaciouii
scorn and contempt. It is quite impossible for ^ny one who
has ever read MjEu^t's journal (L'Ami du Peuple) to fail to rer
cognize a certain daring genius and a mastery of style calculated
to rouse, stimulate and urge to madness the lowest passions of
the lowest people.

The princes did not fail to furnish the desired pretence for
demanding measures of terror in the very first sitting of the le-
gislative assembly, to that p^y of men who, like Marat and
Danton, only saw the security of the newly-acquired rights of the
people in the extinction of everything which was connected with
the old system of government and administration by birth, pos-
session of land, estates or property. The king's two brothers, in
the form of a letter to himself, published a manifesto, dated from
the castle of Schonbornslust, near Coblenz, on the 10th of Sep-
tember 1791, which was immediately afterwards circulated
throughout all Europe. In this letter, which consists of several
pages, the princes placed themselves and the pobility by whom
they were surrounded in the most insolent and contemptuous
opposition to the whole nation, and even to the king himself,
who at the very moment in which the manifesto appeared had
taken a solemn oath to maintain its privileges, and repudiated
everything which had been done since May 1789. The non-
juring clergy, almost all the bishops, and the greater part of the

§ I.] FEANOE TILL KAECH 1798. 365

emi^ ded»red themselves against the new constitution witk

nearly as muob imprudence as the nobility, %nd therefore war

was declared against them in the new legisUtive assembly from

the very comm^no^nent* A paralytic advocate from Clermont,

named Couthon, who afterwards reigned in the times of terror

along with Bobespierre, distinguished himself immediately on

the opening of the assembly as a formal democrat, by refnsmg to

show the king those forms of respect to whieh he was entitled

by the constitution* |Ie succeeded in having a decree passed,

that in solemn sittings of the assembly the arm«chair of the

king should be pla<«d on the same level with that of the pre*

sident, and on its lef}; side. The mass of the people however,

and especially the richer class of citizens, w^re far from having

become so thoroughly fanatical, and the decree made such an

^niavourable impression that it wss recalled on the day after it

was passed. Coutbon indeed did not suffer himself to be detevp

red by this circumstance, but submitted another violent proposal

a^n^t the princes and emigrants, which he succeeded in carryv

ing throughr As early as the tiipe now referred to, the assembly

had given it to be understood in another wey, that it was well

disponed to favour a new republioi|n revplution. In its address

to the king^ the assembly revised to call the new constitution

admirable, and imperiously imposed upon the king the obligation

of appearing in the midst of them, not when it suited his con**

venienee, but at such times as the assembly should appoint. By

a deputation of twelve members they invited the king to come to

their sittings, but as they determined on the precedipg day? re«-

quired him to come inimediately.

As rq;ar4s Couthon's proposal against priests and emigr^ts,

a threatening resolution had been already passed in July, and

Couthon now induced the assembly to agree to a secqpd, o^ the

20th Qf October, by which the lipiit of a single month was pre^

spribed to all who were absent, within which they were required

certainly to return*. The friends of chiu^ge did not even wait

for the expiration of the term, but previous to that time passed 4

new penal edict, which the king was to be called upon to confirm*

Louis hesitated, and was vehemently importuned and threat-

* " Ce d^lai pass^/' it is said in the decree, " le d^cret du 9 Juillet sera
mis k execution. Tous les fonctionnaires publics, qui ue seront pas rentr^ k
cette ^poque, seront d^chus de leurs titres, places, traitemens, droits de citoyen
actif. Les princes, frires du roi, et les trois princes Cond^, seront d^hus de
leiut droits ^entoela ^ Is couronne et de tous leurs traitepens."

266 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

ened. The communal council of Sierk having detained some
military waggons^ other frontier authorities followed their example
in consequence of the armed preparations of the emigrants^ and
the assembly was importuned by addresses from all quartan to
pass some measures against them. After violent ddbates, which
continued far some days^ the natjoniil WMembly finally declared
all those Frenchmen assembled on the frontiers to be persons
suspected of conspiracy against their country; and the decree
went on to declare, that should not such assemblies separate be-
fore the 1st of January 1792, every one found among them after
that time should suffer the penalty of death : this was especially
aimed against the princes, whose estates and revenues were im-
mediately confiscated.

The kmg refused his immediate sanction to this decree, but
wrote letters of warning and dissuasion to his brothers, which
were answered by them in such a way by public writings, that
their testimony might be appealed to, if deemed advisable, to
accuse the king of treason. We know, said the princes in their
letters, which were printed in the newspapers, that the king is
not serious (the eldest writes, Pardre de me rendreprh de V. M.
n^estpaa Fexpreasion libre de sa volonti). The repeated and im-.
portunate demands of the king therefore were merely regarded
in the country as proofs of his want of moral courage, of his dis-
simulation and false policy. Want of reliance on his own judge-
ment also led the king to follow the advice of the persons about
the court, and at the election to public offices in Paris, to aid
and assist the worst demagogues with his money and influence,
rather than the most zealous and earnest friends of the new
constitution. The plans of the demagogues were regarded as
visionary, whilst the maintenance of the constitution seemed
at lesst possible: in consequence of this folly, the king lost the
support which he might have found in such men as Lafayette,
Rochefoucault, Talleyrand, and others. In the common-council.
Potion the republican was appointed procureur syndic^ and
Danton his deputy, whilst Robespierre, Tallien, and BiUaud
Varennes of infamous memory, were members of the court. As
early as the 25th of November, this court seized upon the ad-
ministration of the police and of justice, and placed their com-
mittee of police not under the control of the government author-
ities, but immediately under the legislative assembly. On the
25th of November, a police committee {comity de surveillance)

§ I.] FRANCE TILL MARCH 1792. 267

was appointed by the courts which was to consist of twelve
members, who were to be replaced every three months. This
committee was clothed with judicial functions, suffered to make
domiciliary visits, and made responsible to the legislative as-
sembly alone. Men who were openly-declared republicans ob-
tained seats in this committee, such as Merlin de Thionville,
Bazire, Chabot, Isnard, Quinette, Lecointre and others, and
these men omitted no opportunity of persecuting the adherents
of the monarchical system as the worst enemies of their Utopian
dreams.

The favourers of the only constitution, which in a state of
great wealth and advanced civilization is compatible with civil
freedom (that is, the constitutionalists), were persecuted and ex-
posed to the public dislike by these men in every possible way,
especially afler their public adhesion to the king in December,
in order to protect the priests, whose consciences would not allow
them to take an oath of fidelity to the constitution. This took
place on the 29th of November, when it was resolved, that all
ecclesiastics without distinction should take the oath, or be im-
mediately placed under the surveillance of the directory of their
respective departments. The king with great hesitation and dread
ventured to use the veto which the constitution lefl him against
this decree, and the constitutionalists sought to inspire him with
courage. The members of the liberal and constitutional direc«-
tory of the department, who were all aristocrats, published a
petition to the king in the newspapers, in which they besought
him to persevere in his refusal. This petition was presented to
the king on the 5th of December, and he had also consulted
Bamave, Duport, and other constitutionalists, before he gave his
negative answer on the 14th of December. This petition and ad-
vice of the constitutionalists were successfully turned to account
in order to rouse against them the suspicion of being connected
with the absolutists, at that time called aristocrats.

The dispute respecting the persecution of the priests was soon
followed ^y another in December 1791> concerning the warlike
measures which appeared to have become necessary in conse-
quence of the complaints of the German princes, and the share
which the emperor Leopold and king Frederick William took in
these complaints. The minister of war was accused of having par-
ticipated in those measures agreed upon with Austria against the
constitution ; another was demanded in his stead, and he could

266 FIFTH PBBIOP. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. I.

pDly \)e chosen by the influence of two ladies^ who presided over
the leading saloons of Paris, or from the men alone who assem-
bled in them* The constitutional, elegant and £Eisbionable prat-
tlers assembled at the hpuse of madame de Btael, whilst the
intelligent ^nd quiet republicans who dreamt of Sparta and
Rome fi'equented the spoons of madame Roland, From the for-
mer, Narbonne, the new minister of war, was selected. The
count, it is true, informed the assembly that he had organi^d
an ^rmy in thr^e divisions, and stationed it from Strasburg to
Belgium under the command of Rochambeau, Luckner and
Lafiiyette. The republio^ps however placed no confidence in
him, ai^d during the first months of the year ITS^? the king was
harassed to assent to a system of persecution against the emi-
grants and priests Qnd the constitutionalists, on account of the
war with the emperor.

lipuvet d(s Couvray, the author of one of those scandalous
novels whose sale even nqw in France would sul^ect the seller
to punishment (lies Aventures du Chevslier de Faublas), one of
the menibers of the legislative assembly und of the association
called the Qironde, boasts in his memoirs that on both points it
w^ he who had given the signal for attack. On the 25th of
December he appeared at the head of a deputation from one of
the sections of Paris and presented a petitipn against the prinoes;
he afiierw^ds presented a second, directed against the declaration
pf the administrators of the department, in which they had be-
sought the king not to confirm the decree against the priests and
^migrants, Louvet's proposal was made to favourable ears, end
t;he decree of accusation against the prince of Conde, which was
issued on the 1st of January }7^^9 embraced even more than its
prppo^er h^d demanded, An order for arrest was issued pot
only against Cond^, but also against the king's brother and two
members of the constituent asseml^y, the marqi4is de Laqueille
and viscount de Mirabeau*. The king always cQndUPted himself
as persons who are weak-minded and easily provoked or pfiended
usually do. He therefore exhibited great sensibility when the
national assembly, which was upder the sway of the democrats,
pn New-Year's-day, refused to show him those ordinary marks of

* This brother of the count Mirabeau, who died in March 1791, was en-
gaged in raising the black legion on the Rhine ; the marquis de Laqueille, as
the agent of the princes, recruited those battalions which they wished to em-
ploy.

§ I.] FRANOB TiLL MAB€H 1792. 269

respect which politeness absolutely requires^ atid manifested his
displeasure In a petty way towards Potion the mayor^ who was
indeed too well acquainted with the laws of etiquette and the
manners and usages of polite life either to use or justify the sup*
position that the omission arose iVom ignorance* The magi-
strates of Paris^ headed by P^tion^ mayor of the city, presented
themselves at the Tuileries on New-Year's-day^ but refhsed
to ofibr the customary congratulations to the queen ; the king
took his revenge by receiving them at the door of the billiard-*
room^ and dismissed them with a familiar nod*

With respect to the war^ foi* which both the adherents Of the
old system and the violent jacobins were anxious^ and which the
constitutionalists and moderate republicans abhorred, Brissot^
although he afterwards joined the Gironde, was indefatigable in
his endeavours to rouse the legislative assembly, and as A mem-
ber of the committee of foreign affairs, in urging on the war^
He was earnest and pressing with the assembly to require
the king to declare expressly and clearly to the emperor the
conditions on which alone peace could be maintained^ and in
what cases war would become unavoidable. The emperor was
to be called upon to renounce all treaties and agreements into
which he had entered against the sovereignty^ independence and
security of the French nation* Time wils given till the ist of
March, and in case he did not within the Umited time give a
satisfactoiy reply to all the demands mode upon him^-^not
merely an evasive or dilatory answer, — even his silence would
be regarded as a declaration of war. From this time forward^
the friends of the ancient and purely monarchical constitution,-*-
that is, the aristocratic pail of the nation^ with whom were asso^
ciated all those who had awakened from the dream of the 4th of
August 1789 and from liberalism, — began to intrigue with foreign
powers against the new constitution. These cabals kept pace
with the strong and violent resolutions which the wild democrats
of the legislative assembly were accustomed to extort» On th^
18th of January the king's eldest brother was declared to have
forfeited all claims to any regency M'hich circumstahces inigbt
require, and on the 9th of February a law was passed by which
all the estates of the emigrants were declared to be confiscated^
On the other hand, in the treaty agreed upon and concltided
in Berlin with Prussia^ Austria and Russia, on the 7th of Fe-
bruary^ the whole was directed against the freedom and indepen-^

270 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I,

dence of Poland^ with the exception of a single article^ which was
specially directed against the new form of government in France.
At the same time in which these measures were publicly and
secretly promoted against the king and the constitution^ there
sprung up an ochlocratic power in France^ — a species of new
order^ under the appearance of complete anarchy^ without any
one having either projected or followed any definite plan for its
establishment. This power arose out of the circumstances of
the case^ and was regulated and moulded by them. The jacobin
club adopted a system of internal organization precisely as if it
were legitimate authority^ extended its power over towns, villages
and hamlets, and the course of legislation favoured the complete
dissolution of order instead of obstructing it. The rude mob of
the capital daily perpetrated all descriptions of mischief and
crime, because the higher authorities did not venture to act with
energy, and the inferior magistrates did not wish to do so, as
they employed the services of the mob to promote their own
views. As early as this time pikemen were permitted to take
their place among the national guards, and the better class of citi-
zens employed people as substitutes, who lived upon the money
which they received from this description of service. In addi-
tion to this, two steps which had been taken by the constituent
assembly gave rise to disturbances in the first month of the sit^
tings of the national assembly, which were generally attributed
to those anarchists who dreamed of a republic. The decrees of
the national assembly in favour of the coloured population of
St. Domingo, and its imprudent and hasty declarations with
regard to the freedom of all the inhabitants of the most import-
ant of all the French colonies, gave rise to a war between the
slaves and the owners of plantations, which led to unspeakable
cruelties and contributed to the loss of the island. On the 29th
of October 17^1, news was received that all the blacks in the
northern part of the island were in arms against the whites, and
that 258 sugar plantations had been destroyed. Similar horrors
were called forth by taking possession of the counties of Avi-
gnon and Venaissin which belonged to the pope, and the intro-
duction of the new constitution into these districts. The
majority of the inhabitants of the county, and particularly the
inhabitants of the town of Avignon, offered a determined resist-
ance to these innovations ; and the consequence was, that hordes
of Italian and French bandits, who still infest these districts^

§ I.] FRANCE TILL MARCH 1792. 2?!

were let loose upon the citizens. The authorities were set aside.
Jourdan^ who was afterwards called Coup-tite^ forced his way with
his bands into Avignon, and cast into prison all those who were de-
signated as bad citizens, but appeared a second time on the 30th
of October 1791, broke open the prisons, and left the prisoners
to the mercy of the murderers by whom he was accompanied.
The scene of slaughter was revolting beyond description, and a
young man boasted, that with his own hand he had murdered
eighteen victims. The dead, wounded and living were after-
wards thrown indiscriminately into the Rhone, or into the dun-
geons of an old tower, which was called the tower of the ice-pits.
The higher authorities indeed at length interfered ; the murderers
suffered themselves to be arrested without resistance, and in
March 1792, to the regret of all good men, they were pardoned
by the national assembly in consequence of their good intentions.
The persons to whom the king and queen gave ear, — ^that part
of the cabinet, which in all the journals of the day, and in all
the essays of Marat and Camille Desmoulins, was characterized
as the Austrian committee, — ^believed it possible to lay the spirit
of the age by miserable means, such as may be usefiil in times
like our own, but were at that period ridiculous and destructive,
and thereby completely ruined the cause which they professed
to support. These mercenaries, who were obliged to calumniate
and abuse the constitution and its friends, instead of endeavour-
ing to save a plank of the monarchy in the shipwreck, misled
the king into great expenses, in order to pay for the services of
people who were wholly destitute of truth, fidelity or honour.
We must leave it to the French historians to show, from the do-
cuments now printed, what an abuse was made of the funds of
the civil list to pay a demagogy which was wholly useless, to
keep up a system of espionage which led to nothing, and to put
journals, books and libels into circulation ; in a general history
we can only allow ourselves to advert to a very few of these par-
ticulars. In the collection of documents brought together to
justify the prosecution of the king*, the accounts which are
given respecting the secret expenditure make it almost incredible,
that even if the king had no judgement in such things, the
honourable and well-meaning Delaporte, the intendant of the civil
list, should not have been alive to such a system of deception.

* Recneil des pi^es justificatives de Facte fondamental du procb de Louis
XVI.

37^ FIFTH PBRIOD# — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

We there find that in March 1791^ Danton received monej as
well as MirabeaU) and that the clever and witty Kivarol^ whose
sarcasms however belonged to another period, and whose Actes
des Apdtrei were more injurious than useflil, Submitted a pro-
posal for putting into operation a species of demagogy on an
immense scale5 in which 200,000 livres A month were to be em-
ployed to hire a body of fifteen hundred men to write and act in
ikvour of monarchical principles^

The same documents furnish us with an example of the man-
ner in which people who are employed on such occasions treat
those princes who put themselves into their hands. From another
report presented to Delaporte, also to be found in this collection,
it appears that Talon, an advocate of the Chfttelet^ received
several millions from the privy purse for distribution. The
advocate himself profited so largely by his own favour in this
affair, that when he was afterwards obliged to leave France and
took reftige in England, he kept up a very splendid establish-
ment. In the third volume of the papers fouiid in the iron
chest, there was still another report of Delaporte^ in which
100,000 livres monthly are reckoned for bribing the three or
four hundred soldiers of the constitutional guard whom it was
thought desirable to have in pay. Bertrand de Molevrlle, the
head of the Austrian committee, in two works, each consisting
of several volumes, has very ingenuously admitted that he was
deceived from the beginning, and still continued to allow him-
self to be deluded* He states^ that as early as the time of the
constituent national assembly, the king in the space of three
months expended 2,500,000 livres in bribing public speakers^ and
yet acknowledges with shame that this Vast sum still failed to
secure the advantage of their eloquence to the court, but left it
to the spirit of the age, or as he expresses it, to the jacobins*
Notwithstanding this, he admits that he again advised the king
in 1792 to employ large sums in similar acts of corruption. Which
only served to expose him to hatred and enriched the most
unprincipled men, who betrayed him.

This miserable Conduct of the enemies of all improveineht not
only injured the king, but also the friends of the new constitu-
tional institutions, who were as violently attacked in 1 792 as
the friends of absolute monarchy had previously been* Fabre
d^Eglantine in his witty publications, Marat in ^L'Ami du
Peuple,^ Freron in the * Orateur du Peuple,^ and Camille Des*

§ I.] FRANCE TILL MARCH 1792. 273

moulins in innumerable pamphlets, which were daily distributed
by thousands among the coffee-houses and workshops of Paris^
demanded the abolition of the constitution, which as they al-
leged had only proved a new bulwark to the aristocrats. The
sittings of the jacobin club, of the common-council of Paris, and
even of the national assembly itself, became therefore daily more
stormy, and the processions and demonstrations in the streets
more dreadful, especially when the legislative assembly at length
passed a formal decree in favour of the murderous principles of
the most fanatical portion of the jacobins. The notorious decree
of March 1792, by virtue of which the infamous Jourdan and
all those who took part with him in the murders of Avignon
were pardoned, has been generally interpreted in this sense.
All good men deplored, and all the constitutional deputies made
a vigorous opposition to this proposal, whilst the republicans
could not restrain their joy.

A true constitutional guard, formed from among the sons of
the most respectable citizens of all the departments, such as La-
fayette and his friends wished to establish, would have offered
an effectual opposition to the progress and tyranny of those
murderous bands whom the republicans from the commence-
ment of the year 1792 employed either to overthrow or murder
the king, had not the courtiers prevailed upon Louis to deprive
himself of this assistance. The constituent assembly, after the
flight of the king, had, it is true, abolished the noble guard
{gardes du corps), but on the very last day of their sittings (30th
September 1791) they had issued a decree, that not only the
Swiss guard should be retained, in order, as hitherto, to do the
duty of the exterior watch and ward, but that instead of the
noble guard, a new citizen guard should be organized, according
to proposals which proceeded from the king himself. This
guard was to consist of 1200 infantry and 600 cavalry, and the
nomination of the three generals who should command them
was to be left entirely to the king. Moreover the national guard
was to occupy the posts of honour, and the king to determine
the places at which those posts should be placed. On the in-
stitution of this guard in March, the pretended friends of the
king, as they themselves admit in their memoirs, destroyed the
very nature and object of the institution, by that want of confi-
dence which they exhibited towards everything citizen-like.

The sons of the most respectable families of the middle classes

VOL. VI. T

274 FIFTH PERIOD.-^BBCOVD DIVISION. [CH. T.

in the kingdom, who indeed were honestly devoted to the con*
stitution, were eummoned to Paris, but the court and the mi-
nisters trusted them not, and those memoirs which were after*
wards published, openly admit that all possible means were
adopted to frustrate this design. No arts or chicanery were left
unpractised to get rid of these young and respectable men, who
ought to have been beyond suspicion, and to replace them by
mercenaries or unknown adventurers, who appeared to the
royalist officers more worthy of trust* Instead of a guard of
8000 men, who were to protect the king by the guarantee of
their characters and not by arms, his friends wished to provide
for his security by arms, for which 5000 mercenaries were iiir from
constituting a sufficient force. This guard, which ought to have
protected the king, awakened therefore new suspicions and hatred,
and became a constant subject of declamation in the national
assembly and of riolent attacks in the public journals. No
mention was ever made of the continual conspiracies of the king
and the court, without the introduction of the names of the new
guard, and its captain the duke de Brissac, and the consequence
was, that it was scattered by storm as early as May, in the
same way as the Bastille was taken. This occurred at the same
time as that part of the national guard on which the most con*
fident reliance could be placed, the grenadiers, became partly
weary of this burthensome service, and of the abuses of the mob
which was hunted upon them, and, partly intentionally, gave
place to the poorer part of the people, who were only armed
with pikes*

The ministers followed the same course in their treatment of
the liberal part of the nation, who were however absolutely
hostile to Marat and his associates, as the court did against the
guard. They continued to negotiate with the court of Vienna
respecting internal aflbirs, and because, like fools, they hoped to
frighten a vain nation by threatening it with foreign powers,
they called forth the long paper, in which Kaunits (ITth of
February), in the ianguage both of Mamiog and threats, ven-
tured to oflfer them some good advice respecting the management
of their national afiairs, and whereby he roused a general feeling
of dislike. At that time Delessart, Chambonas and Bertrand
not only spent hundreds of thousands to bribe Danton and other
deputies, who were totally unworthy of trust, but Bertrand had
m little conception of enthusimm, piitrk>tism, or inspiration for

§ I.] PRANCE TILL If ARCH 1792. 275

any purely humane or honourable cause^ that he also made at-
tempts to corrupt the noblest enthusiasts for freedom among the
deputies'*'. At that time the king, through Mallet du Pan, had
advised the emperor and the king of Prussia to declare war, and
the committee of foreign affairs appointed by the legislative as-
sembly was continually importuned by the deputies, who sus*
pected the designs of the court, quickly to lay before them a
report on the relations with Austria ; the ministers, on the other
hand, availed themselves of a thousand arts in order to obstruct
or delay it. Professor Koch of Strasburg, in whose school of
diplomacy Choiseul, as well as Goussier and Talleyrand P^ri*
gord and the Austrian Cobenzl had been trained, was a member
of the committee, and entrusted with drawing up the report
which was to decide the question of peace or war. He hesitated,
but the members of the Gironde made themselves masters of
this afiiiir. The repubUcan Brissot, who stood nearer to the
intemperate friends of Danton than to the milder allies of Yer-
gniaud and Guadet, by the urgent speeches of the latter was re*
commended to the committee as reporter instead of Koch ; he
was appointed, and the whole intrigue of the ministers brought
to light.

The cabals which Delessart and Bertrand, in connexion with
the king, had set on foot against the defenders of the constitu-*
tion, as well as against that portion of the ministry which these
defenders wished to uphold, led in this way to the overthrow of
the whole ministry, and brought the republicans into the cabinet.
It was with great difficulty too that Lafayette and his friends
maintained themselves against the vehement attacks of Marat
and other libellous journalists ; still however that part of the
army at whose head he was placed continued to adhere to La-

* Bertrand calumniates such men as Isnard, Vergniaud and Guadet, when
he alleges that they might have been purchas^ by 6000 francs monthly, but
that Delessart was not willing to advance the money ; he may have been right
with regard to Brissot and Fauchet. Petion, as is well known, was called
le veriueux, as Robespierre was named V incorruptible, and Manuel, notwith-
standing the detestable part which, as procureur de la eomtnune, he played in
Augast and September, was only a fanatic in the cause of freedom, incapable
of being bribed, and did everything in his power in 1793 to save the king*
We cannot more clearly show what were the opinions of Danton and his ad-
herents than by quoting the words which at that time he addressed to Royer-
CoUard, to draw him over to his party. Royer-CoUard states, that Danton
gave him the following advice : " Jeune horn me, venez hraiUer avec nous ; quand
VOU8 aurez fait votre fortune, voub pourrez alors saivre plus ^ votre aise le partly
qui vous conviendra le mieux."

t2

276 PIFTrt PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. U

fayette, and the executive was thoroughly monarchical in all the
departments, and usually consisted of distinguished nobles. Ber-
trand and his adherents felt as much dissatisfaction at the pre-
sence of count Narbonne, the friend of the constitutional Lafa-
yette and madame de Stael, in the office of minister of war, as
the jacobins themselves, and they did him the greatest service
by removing him entirely at this decisive moment, and con-
ferring his situation on De Graves. By this means all the
parties favourable to change became united against the govern-
ment in the year 1793, notwithstanding the difference and va-
riety of views which they entertained. Brissot had drawn up
his report in a violent and criminatory strain, supported it in a
long speech full of reproaches and condemnation, and concluded
with a motion which was ruinous to Delessart. Brissot had
brought forward ten points of accusation against the minister,
and concluded by submitting a decree enjoining a charge of
high treason, to be preferred against Delessart before the high
court of justice established at Orleans, by virtue of the ordinance
of the constituent assembly of the 17th of January 1792. This
decree was really passed on the 10th of March*, and the king
reduced to the greatest perplexity, because his ministry was dis-
solved without his consent. Narbonne had been dismissed
shortly before, and Bertrand de Moleville was soon obliged to
follow. When Delessart was subjected to accusation, Cahier de
Oerville and De Graves alone remained, and the king was ad-
vised to fill up his ministry from the ranks of the opposition.
In theory the advice was sound, but under the then existing
circumstances completely ruinous. The king placed no con-
fidence in his new ministers, and more and more relied on foreign
powers and kept up his connexion with them; the ministers
soon observed that they were objects of distrust and repugnance

* The oonBtitational members of the assembly, and among them Becquet,
Jauconrt, Dumas and Britsch, attempted in vdn to have the matter once more
referred to the committee of diplomatic affairs ; but Vergniaud spoke with
such effect against them, that the resolution was passed in the foUowmg terms,
drawn up by a jacobin (Lacroix) : " L'assemblee nationale, sur la d^noncia*
tion motiv^ d'un de ses membres, d^cr^te qu'il y a lieu k accusation contre le
sieur Delessart, ministre des affaires ^trang^res, charge le pouvoir ex^tif de
donner les ordres n^cessaires pour le faire mettre en etat d an-estation et faire
apposer les scell^ sur tons les papiers qui lui sont personnels et qui pourront
se trouver dans sa maison d'habitation. Le pr^ent d^ret sera port^ sur le
champ au pouvoir ex^utif, qui rendra compte des mesures qu'il aura prises
pour son execution.*' The decree is remarkable, because the king is therein
regarded and treated with the greatest contempt.

§ I*] FRANCE TILL MAJtCH 1792. 277

to the king, and openly declared war against him, because he
conspired against them in secret.

The new ministers, who entered office on the l7th of March,
were honourable men, with some exception perhaps in the case of
Dumourier ; but according to the account given of them by their
best friend, madame Roland, men of a very ordinary stamp, and
by no means fitted to steer the vessel of state through the storm
which was then raging, and surrounded as she was by hidden
rocks and breakers. Roland de la Platiere, previously inspector
of manufactures, was appointed minister of the interior, and by
means of his wife played the chief part in the ministry. He
brought together all his colleagues in his saloons, where his
simple and admirable wife, who was inspired with an ardent love
for the republics of antiquity, which she modelled after her own
fashion, exercised a quiet, modest, but nevertheless a veiy power*
ful influence. Roland was above sixty years of age, whilst his
wife was young, beautiful, well-bom and simple, and as she her-
self informs us, had read many serious works, and not merely
novels and poetry. She had been captivated by the rhetorical
and oratorical representations of the history of antiquity, as it is
conceived by the Latins and French and delineated in charming
phrases. From such books she had drawn and formed her ideal
of heroes and states, such as is always to be found in books but
nevermet with in the world, but which women and imaginative men
meet with in every street. Madame Roland was usually present
at the ministerial conferences, and inspired the agedministers with
the idea which was so living and real in her own mind ; and no
one who has ever read her memoirs, or conversed with her when
she was condemned for execution, or heard of the serenity with
which she met her fate, can refuse her the tribute of their re*
spect and admiration. She is the more worthy of this tribute,
as she still remained so completely a woman, the less she sought
after any display of talents, and the more unlike she was to
madame de Stael, to a Dudevant, a madame de Girardin, and
similar ladies of the Parisian saloons, who by their pens have
exercised dominion over men.

Roland was associated with Duranthon, a jurist, such as all
jurists are, as minister of justice ; Lacoste, a man of business of
moderate talents and acquirements, but by no means revolution-
ary, was minister of marine ; Clavieres, the Genevese, minister of
finance, and major-general Servan, minister of war. The only

278 FIFTH PBRIO]>.'--SBOOND DIYIBION* [CH. I«

one among them who possessed distinguished capadties and
great experience was the new minister of foreign affiiirs. This
was general Dumourier, one of those of whose services Louis
XVI. availed himself in the negotiations and schemes which he
carried on without the knowledge and often against the plans of
his ministers ; he now played the same game with the repul>-
licans and for the same reasons by which he was actuated in
continuing an intriguer tUl the end of his life^ which he had hi-
therto played in favour of those who could aid him in his pur-
suit of honours and distinction. He at first attached himself to
the Oironde, but afterwards split with his friends and joined
their opponents^ the reckless jacobins^ and was thus brought
into close and intimate connexion with Danton and Robespierre^
the one of whom was the leader of the jacobins and the other of
the cordeliers. Dumourier as well as Danton was also ac-
quainted with the duke of Orleans, who afterwards entrusted
him with the instruction of his son Louis Philippe, to use him
for the promotion of his treasonable plans, whilst he ofiered his
services to the weak king as a support against his republican
colleagues.

Dumourier was the only one among the ministry who had
any experience in diplomatic or military afiairs. At the time of
the first partition of Poland he had managed the intrigues of
Louis XV. as his secret plenipotentiary, and had seen some ser-
vice in the field, but was afterwards thrown into the Bastille by
the minister, because Louis XV. had sent him to Sweden with-
out the knowledge of the government; on the death of the king
he was set at liberty and found means of recommending himself
to the favour of St. Germain, who, as is well known, wished to
introduce the Prussian system of drill into France, and with
that view sent Dumourier as a colonel to Lille. He afterwards
contrived to get the superintendence of the great works which
were executed at Cherbourg, with the design of improving the
harbour ; the revolution found him in this position, and seemed
to him to open up a new path to honom* and fortune. When
the honourable men of the Gironde received him amongst them,
like all the designing rascals of that time, he saw farther than his
fellows who were unacquainted with high life, for even madame
Roland ascribes to him all those qualities which she denies to
his colleagues. She indeed gives it to be understood, that he
also, like Mirabeau, Talle3rrand, Pitt, and Thiers, stood upon

f I.] rmANOi vihh MAKOB 1792« 979

th«t higli diplomatio eminence, viewed from which our common
social ideas of fidelify, truth, aimplicitj and honour seem small
and ridicoloua*.

According to Briaaof s wishes, the new miniatiy ought imme-
diately to have declared war, but the most violent party of the
jacobins, of which Robespierre had already become the chief,
was at first opposed to this step* From his first appearance on
the stage of public life in 1789> Robespierre ruled among the
masses by means of a broad, coarse and vulgar style of Old
Bailey eloquence, such as was calculated to rouse and cherish
the envy and evil passions of the mob, and which in order to be
intelligible must be copious in words. He had already become
the life and soul of the jacobin olub, at the time when all the
saloons were filled with admiration at the carefully polished
speeches of the friends of Brisaot. His dry and matter-of-fiust
mind only saw realities, and was so wholly destitute of ideality
and imagination, as to have scornfully asked, according to ma-
dame Roland's report, at the tin&e of the king's flight, what sort
of thing the virtuous republic of madame Roland was? and
when the girondist, in elegant and polished language, called for
war, he continued in the jacobin ohib to make violent speeches
in f&vour of the maintenance of peaeef* The very tone which
Dumourier threw into his diplomatic notes and negotiations, in
order to meet the demands of the times and to amuse the repub*

* Madame Roland in her mtmoira speaha of hioB aa followa 1 " Dumonriar
avoit plat q«e toua sea coU^aes ce qu''on appelle de Vesprit et moina qu'aucun
de moraliti. Diligent et brave, boD g^A^ral, habile courtiaan, ^crivant bien«
i^^on^ant avec fialiU, capable de grandaa cntrapriaea, il ne lai a manqn^ que
ploa de caract^e pour ton esprit ou udq t^te plus froide poor aaivre le plan
qu'il avoit con^u. Plaisant avec ses amis, et pr6t k les tromper tous ; gaJaat
anpr^ des femmes, mats nnllement propre k r^asir aoprda de cellea, qn'on
commerce tendre ponrroit a^doire ; il toit fait ponr lea intriguea miniaUriellaa
d'une cour corrompue. Sea qualitea brillantea et I'int^r^t de sa eloire ont
persuade qu'il pouvoit 6tre utilement employ^ dana les arm^s de la r^nblique,
et peut-^tre et^t-il march^ droit, al la convention eiit ^t^ aaga ; car il est trop
habile poor ne pas agir comma nn homme de bien« loraque aa reputation et
son inter^t Ty engagent."

t And it may be added, against the new minbiry and their JHends, who were
eontemptuooaly called BriseoHitM. Robeapierre, m the tribune of the jacobin
clubf and Camille DeamouUns, in hia pamphlet entitled ' Brissot Demasqu^/
agreed in the accusation : " Qu'avec une arm^ Fran9oise victorieuse an dehora,
ai la guerre ^toit d^id^e, le parti Brisaotin, coalia^ avec Lafayette, renverseroit
la royaut^ et ^tabliroit une puisaance s^natoriale qui satisferoit Tambition du
parti civil." We express our views very shortly concerning the jacobins and
cordeliers, because we can say nothing more to tiie point or better than Thiera
haa already aaid in the second part of hia * Hktoire da la Revolution/

280 FIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I,

licanSj would of itself necessarily have called forth a war^ even
had not the death of the emperor Leopold^ at the beginning of
March 1792, brought a young and inexperienced prince to the
throne of Austria, who was wholly dependent on his wife and
courtiers.

§11.

RELATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN POWERS TILL THE DECLARA-
TION OF WAR ON THE PART OF FRANCE AGAINST THE EM-
PEROR.

In our account of the measures adopted by feudal Europe
against the French who had been delivered from the hierarchy
and feuda] burthens of the middle ages, and of the intrigues
woven by cabinets and their diplomatists, we commence with
England. Pitt, together with the aristocracy and plutocracy, at
whose head he was placed in 1784, because they understood
their own position and interests much better than the emperor
and the king of Prussia did theirs, never once thought of inter-
fering directly in the internal affairs of France ; their object was
to avail themselves of this opportunity to annihilate the naval
power of France and the trade of all those who are not Britons.
They had nothing to fear from the infection of free speeches, for
John Bull is as completely blind, by reason of his prejudices
and insolent pride, as those who reverence the holy garment and
are under the guidance of the Jesuits are by papism. As soon
however as the absolute governments of the continent showed a
disposition to fight in the cause of the old French and English
aristocracy and hierarchy for money, Pitt prevailed upon the
English people to take the princes and ministers into their pay,
because whatever the issue of the war upon the continent might
be, in every case England would succeed in extending her do-
minion on sea, and the English people would be thereby more
closely and firmly bound to its oligarchy, and be intoxicated
with the glory of naval victories.

In 1784 Pitt secured his power by the second India bill; he
afterwards continued to gain ground upon a people which idolizes
itself and everything ancient by the careful maintenance of all
abuses and the support of the aristocracy upon what is called
historical right, by the payment of the pretended debts of the
king and the avaricious queen, by a wise administration, a cun-

4 II.] CONDITION OF EUBOPB TILL APRIL 1792. 281

iiinglj dissembled system of reform^ and bj improvements an-
nomiced with great pomp and circumstance. The internal
administration of England does not lie within the scope of our
object in this work^ and we shall therefore allude to only a few
points^ and those incidentally. Among these we must especially
mention the relation in which the oppressed Irish had come to
stand towards their oppressors since the time of the North Ame^
rican war. With this view we must cast a glance on the new
relation of the Irish to England, because it wiU hereafter appear,
that «t the time in which the English in 1795 conveyed an army
of emigrants to the bay of Quiberon, the French hoped to find
allies in the cathohc Irish and devised a grand plan of invasion. By
restoring to the Irish the arms of which they had been deprived
in the North American war, and by some favourable changes in
their mode of legislation, they were now able to use these means as
a bulwark against English usurpations. Shortly before Pitt's en-
trance into the ministry, the two houses of parUament, assembled
in October 1783, passed a resolution that the parUament should
be regularly assembled once every year. As early as this period
also, views began to be entertained of a total reform of the whole
representative system. This idea was met with violent oppo-
sition in the parliament itself, and gave rise to violent commo-
tions throughout the whole country, which were as unfruitful in
their results as the labours of those who, in our own times, are
exerting themselves to obtain a repeat of the union and the con-
sequent restoration of the Irish parliament. Pitt was placed in
a very peculiar position, because the king and queen made large
demands upon the purse of the EngUsh nation, and the prince
of Wales put forward his claims for the doubling of his income.
The prince gambled, betted, and kept a stud, which cost him
annually 30,000/., whilst his whole income only amounted to
50,000/. The parliament was ready to accede to the prince's
desire, but the king refused his consent. The debts of the
luxurious and extravagant prince were stated by himself to
amount to 570,000/. in the year 1792, as we find it stated by
Harris (lord Malmesbury) in his memoirs recently published.
Fox and Sheridan, whose course of life was similar to that of the
prince, w.ere therefore much more in his favour than Pitt, who
refused to grant the money. By this step Pitt secured the favour
of the king, whilst the prince threw his weight into the scale of
the opposition. In proportion however as the minister was dose

28£ FIFTH PBKIOD.— 8B00ND DIVISION. [CH* I,

towards the prince, he was lavish towards the king^ or rather tb
avaricious queen, who on that account continued till hor death
to use all her interest and influence in support of the tories and
their priadples and privileges. At her urgent desire and under
pretence of being encumbered bj debts, and having a large
familj, the king firom time to time made heavy demands upon
the nation, although it had been found necessary even then to
set some limits to its benevolence toward the poor, because the
number of poor had increased to an enormous extent as well as
that of the immensely rich. This frequently reduced the minister
to great perplexity. We have already previously remarked that
Pitt, immediately after his entrance upon office, had for the
fourth time made an addition of 60,000/. to the civil list, which
aheady amounted to 900,000/., and proffered as his excuse the
pretended debts of the king. Two years afterwards (1786) the
English people were again obliged to pay large sums of money
from the pubHc treasury, which was replenished by heavy taxes
imposed upon the prime necessaries of life.

In order to deceive Europe and the good people of Old En*
gland by the exhibition of a judicial accusation against one of
the bloodsuckers of India, and to iqcrease the impression of
equal justice to all, which theoretically exists, but is a practical
nonentity, the newspaper public were afterwards occupied for
months with the state trials. On this occasion many long^
polished and rhetorical speeches were delivered, and a grand
spectacle was presented to the public, in which the chief objects
of attraction were the upper house as judges, and the much-
lauded liberal members of the commons, among whom the co-
pious Burke was conspicuous, as the accuser ; the whole shearing
however produced but httle wool. Impey, formerly chief-justice
in Bengal, and the governor-general Warren Hastings were the
accused ; the prosecution cost them immense sums of money,
which they were enabled to pay out of the spoils of the oppressed
natives of India; neither the people of India however, nor right
and justice, gained the smallest advantage by the cause, but the
whole of Europe expressed their astonishment and wonder, as
that is usually done, at the magnificence of the spectacle 1

In the same way as Pitt thus won the favour of the king and
the privileged classes of whom the parliament was composed,
and whole crowds of whom he took care to have returned from
the rotten boroughs ; in the same way as he deceived the well-

§ II.] CONDITION OF SUROPB TILIi APBII^ 1792« 388

diapofled but narrow-mmded John BuU by his oomedj of equal
kw8 and justioe, he also most akilfuUy availed himac^ in 1787
of all the arts of diplomacy in order to employ Prussia as the
mere tool pf English policy. By this means^ without the ex-
penditure of large sums of money^ or having recourse to arms,
he obtained an influence both in Holland and Belgium^ which
was so considerable that it might be called dominion. The
Prossians, protected by England against ihe threats of France^
reinstated the stadtholder in Holland^ thus wrested the country
fiom the hands of France and made it wholly dependent on
England^ which possessed an immense naval force, and not upon
Prussia^ which had none. Joseph II. was first prevented firom
carrying out his plans in favour of the trade and navigation of
the Belgians, which appeared as much an object of suspicion to
the English merchants as to the Dutch, by the cabals of Prussia,
supported by the English and by the princess of Orange. In
order to meet the wishes of both parties, the emperor Leopold^s
hands were completely tied up by the treaty of Reichenbaoh.
In 1788, precisely at die time in which Necker was labouring in
France to shake the system of absolute monarchy, there ap«
peared to be the probability in England of a change in the
dominion of the nobility and men of wealth, which had been
renewed and increased under Pitt. The bodily organization of
Gteorge III. was of that description in which physical diseases
easily affect the mind and produce mental delusion. Such at«
tacks were at first of short continuance, but repeated returns at
length so far shook and disorganized the powers of his mind,
that towards the close of life he fell into a state of absolute in-
sanity. The first symptoms of this evil presented themselves in
the summer of 1788.

Attempts were made to relieve the king's indisposition by a
temporary removal to Cheltenham, where the real state of the
king's case might be concealed firom the public, at all events for
some weeks ; this however soon proved to be impossible for any
length of time, and finally it was found necessary to bring the
question of a regency before parliament. According to law and
custom in England, the office of regent devolved upon the prince
of Wales, if, as was then the case, he had arrived at years of
maturity. The political party to which Pitt belonged were how-
ever as much dismayed at the consequence o£. the prince of
Wales becoming regent, and for the same reasons, as the French

284 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [ciH. I.

princes were alarmed at the same time by the assembly of the
states-general which had been announced by Necker. The afiair
was brought before parliament in December 1788, which was
anxious to find some means of escape from the difficulty, because
the prince's mode of life as well as his associates excited general
disapprobation, and Pitt's conservative system appeared to be
seriously threatened by the prince's intimacy with Fox, Sheridan
and other members of parliament not indisposed to innovations.
The means to which Pitt and the tories had recourse were sin-
gular enough, considering their conservative principles. On this
occasion Fox defended the monarchical and legitimate principle,
that the successor to the throne has a natural and hereditary
right to the regency, whilst Pitt based his argument against this
principle upon a revolutionary foundation, quite in accordance
with tiie French ideas of the sovereignty of the people, and cha-
racterized the opposite doctrine as treason against the constitu-
tion. He maintained that the people alone, by virtue of the
constitution and through the two houses of parliament, had the
same right and power to decide upon the question of regency
during the life-time of the king as they had to determine any
other.

The prince of Wales having previously caused a declaration
to be made through his brother the duke of York, that he laid
no claim to a hereditary right to the regency, Pitt* s views pre-
vailed. In consequence of this, only a part of the sovereign
rights were entrusted to the prince, and these under considerable
limitations. The contest which had commenced in December
was prolonged through the month of January 1789, till it was
at length resolved, that '^ the care of the king's person and the
disposition of the royal household should be committed to the
queen," who woidd by this means be vested with the patronage
of four hundred places, among which were the great offices of lord
steward, lord chamberlain and master of the horse ; and that ^^ the
power of the prince should not extend to the granting any office,
reversion or pension, for any other term than the king's pleasure,
nor to the conferring any peerage." The measures proposed by
Pitt, as here stated and submitted for acceptance to the prince,
were embodied in five resolutions and approved of by a great
majority of both houses of parliament, although a protest was
signed by fifty-seven peers, at the head of whom were the dukes
of York and Cumberland.

§ II.] CONDITION OP EUROPE TILL APRIL 1792. 285

The English parliament, Pitt and the tones, were on this oc-
casion reduced to great perplexity by a step taken by the par-
liament of Ireland, which was at that time still an independent
body. Had not the king happily recovered the full use of his
mind as early as February 1789, the step taken by the Irish par-
liament on this occasion would have destroyed the unity of ad-
ministration between the two kingdoms. Both houses of the
Irish parliament resolved, without a division, though after a
stormy debate, that an address should be presented to the prince
of Wales, requesting him to take on himself the government of
that kingdom during his majesty^s incapacity. The duke of
Buckingham (better known under his earlier title of earl Temple),
who was then lord lieutenant, was guilty of the imprudence of
refusing to transmit the address, and thereby of giving to the
whole afbir a great degree of notoriety. The result was the ap-
pointment of a deputation from both houses for the purpose of
presenting the address. On this occasion the prince returned
the deputation and those whom they represented his warmest
acknowledgements, but informed them at the same time of the
king's restoration to health and resumption of the royal func-
tions.

In March 1789, when Pitt again began to govern in the name
of George III., Prussia and England had formed a close alliance,
because both powers were determined to try to frustrate the
treaties concluded between Catharine II. and Joseph II., in re-
ference to Polish, Turkish and Swedish afiairs. During the
summer months of this year the progress of the French revolu-
tion became unexpectedly rapid, which excited much greater
anxiety in aristocratic England than in monarchical Prussia, be-
cause at that time the contest between the whigs and tories had
a very different character from that which it has at present.
Ever since the time of the revolution of 1688, there had existed
a society in England for the commemoration and maintenance
of the principles which that revolution involved and consecrated;
and the members of this society regarded the French revolution
as an immense step in social progress according to their views.
This society was called '^ the Revolution Society y^ and the object
of its members was to defend those views of national rights for-
merly maintained by the opponents of the house of Stuart, and
they kept up their own connexion and gave permanence to their
opinions by holding a yearly meeting on the anniversary of the

286 FIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH* I.

revolution of 1688. The meeting of this society which was held
on the 5th of November 1789^ boded imminent danger to that
class to whom the English are indebted for the com laws. The
aged and venerable Dr. Price, who in the North American war
had taken up the cause of the democratic republic and defended
it against the deafening clamour for church and king raised by
the ecclesiastical dignitaries, pensioners and sinecurists, now also
came publicly forward in favour of the French revolution. On
this occasion, this venerable minister, then in his 66th year, de-
livered a most remarkable discourse before the assembly in
praise of the French revolution, in which he applied the words
of the aged Simeon with great warmth and earnestness to him-
self, and the overthrow of feudality and hierarchy : '^ Lord, now
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word :
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.'^

On the motion of Dr. Price, the meeting afterwards resolved
to transmit an address of congratulation to the French national
assembly through the earl of Stanhope, who was the president.
Stanhope accordingly forwarded the address to his friend the
duke de Larochefoucault, who was a man of similar views, and
he presented it to the national assembly. The duke, in his
answer to Stanhope, as well as the archbishop of Aix, the pre-
sident of the national assembly, in his letter of thanks to the
'^ Revolution Society,'^ threw out incidental allusions to the
middle ages. The former eulogized Dr. Price in glowing terms,
on account of his services to the North Americans and his
writings in their cause. In consequence of these scenes, which
occurred in November, and the public attention which M*as ex-
cited by Dr. Price's sermon, and the letters of the innovators in
France and opponents of obsolete usages in England, which
were printed together, it was thought necessary to organize
another society to oppose, and, if possible, to put down this
radical clamour both in England and Ireland; Pitt however
guarded himself with the greatest care from appearing as the
leader of an outcry against the revolution. On this occasion he
conducted himself with as great diplomadc tact as on that of
Uie threats and outcry of the emigrants and continental powers.
By means of subordinates, whom he could at any time disavow,
he stirred up the people, was lavish of secret and verbal pro-
mises, but publicly avoided the exhibition of any violence, and
withdrew himself from all official responsibility. As to the

§ II.] CONDITION OF BUROPB TILL APRIL 1792. 287

radical clamour in England and Ireland, he found in Borke,
during the parliament which was opened in January 1790^ a
Btentor for Old England, who, in thundering strains and relying
on historical rights, exerted himself to cry down the cold-blooded
defenders of natural rights.

Pitt easily furnished him with an opportunity for pouring out
the torrents of his eloquence and abuse against France, by in-
troducing a passage into the king's speech which referred to the
revolution, the abuse and condemnation of which was to be left
in the hands of those members of parliament who were not im-
mediately connected with the government, which was still to
preserve the appearance of friendship.

In the king's speech, the allusion to which we have referred
was as fellows : — '^ The internal situation of the different parts
of Europe have been productive of events which have engaged
his majesty's most serious attention;'' and a hope was enter-
tained that the watchmen of the English Zion in church and
state would on this occasion blow their trumpets with vigour and
zeal. The conservative leaders did not feil to answer the ex-
pectations of the government. Those who felt and enjoyed the
benefits of things as they were, declared their hatred towards
France in the usual language of such partisans, and in tones of
rejoicing and insolence, their admiration of all those institutions
and measures which are as much objects of convenience and re-
joicing to the minority as they are oppressive to the majority*
Lord Valletort, without in the least troubling himself with the
recollection of the fact, that when an old state building fells,
many are necessarily injured or killed by the ruins, expressly
declared, that a real Englishman fixed his attention alwajrs on
the present and upon himself, and never could be such a fool as
to purchase the well-being of future generations by the misfor-
tune of his own*i^. Burke, who was then in the full of his
reputation and the pinnacle of his feme, like all the rest, adopted
this course. What indeed he at that time brought forward
against the French and the favourers of their cause, was but a
mere prelude to that which was afterwards to come. He had
just then for the first time given in his adherence to the conser-
vative party; and in January 1790 he first presented himaelf

* Or, 80 he expresses it, the revolution was " an event the most disastrous,
and productive of consequences the most fatal, which had ever taken place
tiaoa the foondatioii of tiie monarchy."

286 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION.

revolution of 1688. The meeting of this society wmc ^ ^^^^
on the 5th of November 1789, boded imminent ^**"^^^^ The
class to whom the English are indebted for the f^"V - ^31^ war
aged and venerable Dr. Price, who in the North ^^ defended
had taken up the cause of the democratic ^ep^^ J . raised by
it against the deafening clamour for church and mg^ ^^^ ^j^^
the ecclesiastical dignitaries, pensioners and ^^^^^^^^^^^ . ^^
came publicly forward in favour of the French f^ , yeeXj de-
thifl occasion, this venerable minister, then in his 6 ^,^^\j in
livered a most remarkable discourse before * ^. ^ ^^ ^ordB
praise of the French revolution, in which he app ^^ ^ j^jj^^^
of the aged Simeon with great warmth and earnes ^^ ^^^ ^ow
self, and the overthrow of feudality and hierarchy : ^^^ .

lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, accordmg
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.*^ ,^ resolved

On the motion of Dr. Price, the meeting ^^ ^^^ national
to transmit an address of congratulation to the 1? presideD*^
assembly through the earl of Stanhope, who ^** ^^.^ ^gnd the
Stanhope accordingly forwarded the address ^ ^^ ^\ew3, and
duke de Larochefoucault, who was a man of w ^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^a^
he presented it to the national assembly. ^ ^ ^^^ ^^ pre-
answer to Stanhope, as well as the archbishop o^ ^^^^j^ to the
sident of the national assembly, in his letter ^ .^^^jg to the
*^ Revolution Society," threw out inciden^\ lowing tc^!'
middle ages. The former eulogized Dr. ^yj^^V^^ricans and biS
on account of his services to the North ^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^bieh
writings in their cau^e. In consequence ot ^^ .^^^ ^,^ls^^

occurred in November, and the public ^^"^^^^^^^^^ inno^t
cited by Dr. Pricc^s scmion, i^^^n^ the Ictiei^ ^^ Engla»**'
Fmnce and opponents of obsolete ^'^^S""^ ^^^^^^^ to
were printed together, it -^'^^^. '^?^"|^^ble, to pt.i
another society to oppose, nna, 1 v^^^ i^^Uxx^t V
radical clamour both in Bngi^"*^ ^^^^^ ^^^^,,

guarded himself m itii the grreatest c^re
fj /. ^ o<-+Vie revolution, •^i' "

leader of an outcry against the ri> ^^^^j^,

conducted himself with o^ g^^^r *.„ «i.iLi
the threats and outcry of the ^^^^^
By means of subortlinateS;> "^ "^^
he stirred up the people* -was
mises, but publicly avoi^^l*^
withdrew himself from *^

792.

289

in a carefully

^ts of indigna-

ance since May

! sins which his

he new institu-

^ to satisfy him-

1- was no judge

■lilosopher, and a

1 and study this

:'(*nt8 of ancient

(instances of the

•retly rejoiced in

laimed against

■ zeal for their

l)le number of

L xcite a lively

IS against all

•xandSheri-

- • nier friend,

■• . ' took place

• - . IS possible,

i the new

(alt more

amced by

rke^s zeal

IS always

.c French.

1 his sue-

' throw the

jhy, the emi-

tt's policy by

ween their ari-

mnof 1790, he

e existing state

• ^d down from the

iii-ped by the nobility

.. jii from that time forward be-

V, in Europe to whom innovations of

inconvenient and all progress with the

his welcome libel on the French nation,

u

'i

288 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH« U

without reserve under Pitf s colours, and his mad zeal and un-
bounded violence exhibited all the characteristics of a proseljrte.
His career resembled that of those Frenchmen who distinguished
themselves in the convention, afterwards became great men under
Napoleon, and either maintained their position or even bettered
it in the time of the restoration and under Louis Philippe.

Under Rockingham's standard Burke had fought for the cause
of North America and democracy, and vehemently declaimed in
favour of English reforms. As soon as he afterwards received
an appointment in the ministry, his mountain, which was preg-
nant with real reform, only brought forth a ridiculous mouse.
This man, who was full of such violent zeal in the cause of
right, truth and freedom, no sooner lost his situation, than, as it
was said, from ^^ necessity the tyrant's plea,'' he showed himself
ready, like Fox, lord North and their respective friends, to enter
into an unprincipled coalition against the ftmdamental principles
of that constitution which he had eulogized as tihe most glorious.
Immediately afterwards he again became the dreaded persecutor
of the scandalous abuses of the plutocracy and of the shameless
and cruel tyrants whom the English constitution, which he aft;er-
wards so zealously defended, called into existence, or at least
secured against all human tribunals. This constitution is indeed
admirable in itself, but has oft;en proved destructive in .its appli-
cation. The speeches which he delivered as the representative
of the lower house and public accuser of some of the most distin-
guished officers and judges of the government and the East India
company, unveil and exaggerate the sins of an aristocratical and
plutocratical state, which he afterwards alleged to be incapable
of improvement. On the debates concerning the regency also^
Burke, who was then closely connected with Fox, suffered him*
self to fall into a republican violence against Pitt and the queen,
who warmly supported him, which is the less to be pardoned in
a man afterwards so ostentatiously loyal, as his vehement speeches
were all carefully studied and committed to memory, and not the
sudden and irrepressible outpouring of excited feelings. We
might quote passages from these speeches in which his violence
borders on raving, — ^passages at which the whole parliament was
disgusted, so that Pitt expressed his compassion for his fierce-
ness as if it had been insanity. This was all changed, when, in
1790, he suddenly poured out the full measure of his indignation
and wrath in a long speech against the French revolution. This

§ II.] CONDITION OF EUROPE TILL APRIL 1792. 289

long, insulting and calumnious speech, written in a carefully
elaborate style, contains the most violent outbursts of indigna-
tion against everything which had happened in France since May
1789. The ruin of France, and all the evils and sins which his
imagination could suggest, were deduced from the new institu-
tions of the country. Whoever therefore wishes to satisfy him-
self by documents, that this celebrated orator was no judge
whatever of political events, that he was no philosopher, and a
very short-sighted statesman, has only to read and study this
speech.

Pitt allowed Burke and the obstinate adherents of ancient
usages, which were no longer suitable to the circumstances of the
times, to rail and to rave. The cold diplomatist secretly rejoiced in
having found a stentor who had previously declaimed against
abuses, but who now exerted all his vigour and zeal for their
maintenance ; for he not only secured a considerable number of
new adherents to the minister, but contrived to excite a lively
hatred in the minds of the blind masses of imitators against all
those who even mentioned reform. For this reason Fox and Sheri-
dan could not be silent on the apostasy of their former friend,
and in the very beginning of the year 1790, a schism took place
among the opposition. Fox spared Burke as much as possible,
and satisfied himself with defending the authors of the new
French constitution against his attacks ; Sheridan dealt more
severely with him, and yet no formal breach was announced by
either of them. Pitt, it is true, highly commended Burke's zeal
and his powerful defence of Old England, but he was always
careful never to approve of his bitter enmity against the French.

On the death of the emperor Joseph II., Leopold his suc-
cessor united with the king of Prussia, in order to throw the
shield of their protection over feudality and hierarchy, the emi-
grants and princes. Burke materially served Pitt's policy by
preparing the English people for an alliance between their ari-
stocracy and the absolute monarchs. In the autumn of 1790, he
came before the public as a writer in favour of the existing state
of things, that is, of everything which was handed down from the
middle ages, or at a later period was usurped by the nobility
and clergy. He wrote a work, which from that time forward be-
came the gospel of all those in Europe to whom innovations of
every description were inconvenient and all progress with the
age hateful. This was his welcome libel on the French nation,

VOL. VI. u

290 FIVTH PEBlOD.«-^BB0OND DIVIfllON. [CH. I.

entitled ' Reflections on the French Reyolution/ In this work
he employs all the weapons of reason, ingenuity and eloquence,
combined with abuse, raillery, insult and calumny, against all
those who differ from him, and in favour of ancient and tra^
ditionary usages and principles, precisely in the same manner as
Marat, Camille Desmoulins and Fr^ron in their journals wrote
in favour of innovation and change, with this exception, that
Burke's turgidity and bombast were intended for the higher
classes, whilst the dreadfully bitter and energetic language of
the Frenchmen was adapted to the lower. Marat and those who
wrote in his spirit and style filled the people with a fanatical seal
for the new order of things, and Pitt was therefore delighted at
having found a man who was able to inspire the same fanaticism
and by the same means against every description of change.
Whole classes of the English people, and by far the greatest
})ortion of the middle ranks, had long been weary of abuses,
sinecures and pensions, of the exclusion of all those who were
not members of the church of England from certain offices and
advantages, as well as of other things of the same kind, and
were anxious for change and reform ; Burke compelled them to
silence by rousing the passions of John Bull, and exposing every
liberal, as if he were an impious man and a rebel, to the hatred
and abhorrence of those to whom his words were an oracle. In
Burke's work, the magnificent spectacle of the whole nation
rising up in its might and indignation, and demanding the resto-
ration of its privileges and of that share in the public admini-
stration of which the nation had for centuries been depriyedi is
uniformly represented as something deserving the condemnation,
abhorrence, and execration of all men; and the mischiefs of
the mob, the excesses of those lawless bands, which were for a
time emancipated from the restraints of order, because the old
edifice had been dashed to ruins and a new one had not been
raised, are maliciously ascribed to honourable men, who sacri-
ficed the well-being of one generation in order to be able to lay
a sure foundation for that of all future ones* The appendix to
Burke's diatribe is completely similar to the journals of Marat
and Freron, for Burke exhorts and encourages the princes to
have recourse to the very same means for the maintenance of
feudality, hierarchy and privileges, which, according to Marat,
the people ought to adopt in order to overthrow and destroy
them* Marat and Camille Desmoulins exhorted the people to

§ II.] CONDITION OF BUBOPS TILL APRIL 1792. 291

offer up bloody sacrifices in the cause of freedom^ Danton^ and
Robespierre ; Burke recommended the same means for the cause
of kings^ nobles^ priests^ princes and emigrants.

These ^ Reflections' had no doubt a very considerable political
influence ; they prepared the way for measures which the emi-
grants^ and above all king George III., would willingly have
seen carried into effect before, and which were begun by Prussia,
Austria and the emigrants in 1792. It can therefore excite no
surprise that all the reigning houses of Europe, the nobles and
admirers of historical privileges and rights, all those who thought
themselves bom and privileged to reign, should have classed
Burke with D'lvemois, Mallet du Pan, and still later with Genz^
regarded him as their teacher and prophet, used all the means
in their power to make good his principles and realize his oracles,
as well as persecute all tiiose who neither would nor could concur
in their views. Burke calls upon all the princes of Europe to gird
themselves as for a holy war, and to make common cause with
Louis XVI. as a legitimate monarch robbed of his throne by
rebels and traitors. And it must be remembered, that this was
at the very time in which Louis appeared at the grand assembly
of federation in the Champ de Mars, According to Burke's re-
commendation, the deluded French people were not on this occa*
sion to be enlightened and undeceived, but to be subdued. This
holy war in favour of feudal rights was not to be carried on ac-
cording to the usual principles of warfare, but in all cases, even
where there was no battle, military execution was to be employed,
in order that everywhere there might be vengeance and blood.
Burke pours out the bitterest torrents of his wrath against all his
countrymen who were not heart and soul of his own school, and
badly conceals his sorrow at being unable to bring the aged, pious
and generally-esteemed Dr. Price to the gallows. He first abuses
the society of friends of the English revolution in general, and
uses the most violent expressions, and then accuses Dr. Price
othAYing Julminated doctrines in the sermon alraady referred to
which might almost be designated as rebellious and treasonable.

These invectives and declamations might indeed have been left
unanswered, but Burke, like D'lvernois, Mallet du Pan and
Genz, was a man of distinguished ability, comprehension, learn-
ing and scientific education, and who therefore, in dear, able and
logical language, advanced another scheme of government and
politics directly opposed to that which was propagated and main-

u2

292 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH* I.

tained in France. We have as little desire to examine the prin-
ciples set forth by Burke as those of the French, because we
taJce no heed of merely theoretical politics ; it cannot however be
denied that he has spoken much more practically respecting
monarchy^ constitutions, and the right of the majority to pre-
scribe laws to the minority, than the French theorists ; that is,
than Bailly, Lafayette and Gr^goire. The whigs therefore felt
themselves called upon to refute Burke, who had then avowedly
entered into the secret service of the king, Pitt, and the tones of
his cabinet. Long before the appearance of the ' Reflections'
(April 17^0), George III. and Pitt had strengthened the king of
France in his disinclination to the constitution which he had
sworn to maintain, and did not disapprove of the dangerous
game which he was playing*: what might they not venture,
when Burke proved to them in clever and splendid phraseology,
that their insolence and prejudices were firmness and wisdom ?

Fox felt himself obliged to bring forward and maintain another
theory in opposition to Burke's ; but he neither would nor could
enter the arena with that eccentric violence by which such attacks
must be repelled, in order to raise up one fanatical party against
another. In politics, as in religion, blind prejudices in favour of
historical rights can only be successfully opposed by demagogy,
superstition, and especially by audacious unbelief. What Fox
therefore could not do, was done by a bold and unscrupulous
democrat. Thomas Paine, celebrated as a democratical writer
in the cause of North America, wrote against Burke, not after
the fashion of the constitutional writers of France, but in the
style of Marat and CamiUe Desmoulins. He opposed the En-
glish prejudices and ecclesiastical cant of the advocates of the
English episcopacy and of historical rights by bold scepticism,
bitter scorn, and the rights of nature. Paine had previously
written a book in favour of the democrats of North Ainerica, in
which he set up the wild and revolutionary principles of what he
called ^ Common Sense/ in opposition to those principles which
had been handed down and sanctioned by history and fact.
This work had had the effect of gaining numerous adherents to

* Bertrand de Moleville states that Calonne had several conferences with
Htt in April 1790, and communicated the results of them to Louis in the fol-
lowing language : " J'ai Thonneur de vous envoyer. Sire, une copie de la lettre
certifi^ de Mr. Pitt. Votre majesty verra ce qu'elle doit attendre d'un mo-
narque p^n^tr^ de cette v^rit^, que voire cause est la cause de tons les souverains,
et qtd est prqfondhseiU intUgnS des traitemens qu'on wnts a fait,"

§ II.] CONDITION OP EUROPE TILL APRIL 17^2. 293

the North American cause, and made many proselytes even in
England; he now attempted in the same manner to sustain the
French revolution, and in a new work entitled < The Bight9 of
MaUf he vindicated that part of the French constitution which
Burke had most violently assailed.

If Burke's rhetorical declamation and his political redundancy
may be compared with the romantic style of certain German and
French defenders of popery and autocracy, with the style of the
pious enemies of protestantism, whom Burke also resembles in
his abuse and ravings, Paine may be said to have written in the
sharp and powerful manner, and to have used the logical acu-
men, bitterness and vehemence characteristic of Junius's Letters
and Marafs * Ami du Peuple/ In fact, Paine's work made as
great and as lasting an impression on certain classes in England,
as Burke's did upon the great majority of the higher and middle
ranks. In the same manner as Burke immoderately and un-
reasonably praises the English constitution, without any regard
to the changes effected by time, and without any reference to
the innumerable abuses and privileges of the rich, which do not
belong to the theory, but have originated in practice, and does
not even acknowledge that this constitution, like all human
things, has sufiered in the lapse of time, Paine denounces and
abuses, without consideration or sparing. Paine not only de»
nounces the practical abuses, the cost of the theoretically possi-
ble, but practically ineffectual complaints of the injured and op-
pressed against the rich and the powerful, the unequal pressure
of the burthens of the state and the inequality in the remunera-
tion of the high and the low, the slavery of the labourers and the
misery of those classes who under a freer system of importation
would at least have bread, and a thousand other consequences of
incredible wealth and increased population, but he assails the
admirable principles and foundation of the constitution itself,
and in violent and offensive language represents them as radically
bad and untenable.

Paine starts from the principles of those men with whom he
afterwards sat in the national convention, and who went to such
a length in their republican dreams as to allege that it was a
gross and serious violation of the rights of man to introduce an
aristocracy or monarchy into any state, in whatever way it might
be established or limited. We shall enter just as little into the
examination of Paine's principles as of those to which they are

294 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. I.

opposed, and which Burke spent all his force in defending ; we
have in fact merely mentioned the names of these two indi-
viduals in preference to others, because they were leaders of the
hosts who came forward as champions of the old and of the new
times, and because their works became the arsenals of all those
warriors who fought under their respective standards. Fox was
placed in a very painful situation by Burke's vehemence, and did
all in his power to prevent him at least from employing terms of
gross abuse and the violent expressions of fanatical rage against
the French constitution and its defenders, because by this means
his own friends in France and the unhappy king himself were
necessarily exposed to greater danger. Burke was incapable of
any moderation ; he thought of nothing but aiding the king and
the aristocrats, and of proving to the jacobins and girondists, by
his speeches in parliament, that in fact the priests, the king, court
and nobility of their countiy were combined with the English
aristocratic government in weaving toils for entangling the French
people. Soon after an accidental circumstance furnished Burke
with an opportunity of openly joining the defenders of feudalism,
and of formally and earnestly renouncing every liberal idea; or
in other words, of solemnly raising the standard of the campaign
which he had proclaimed against the French and their prin-
ciples.

Hitherto the English had governed Canada, which was ceded
to them by France, as a conquered country ; it was now in con-
templation to give the Canadians a constitution, and the English
aristocrats on this occasion were eagerly desirous of introducing
something in the form of a house of peers. During the discus-
sion of this question, some remarks fell from Fox depreciating a
hereditary and feudal nobility, of which Burke availed himself
(on the 6th of May 17^1) to expose the principles which Fox
espoused and vindicated to the hatred of all Europe, by his poi-
sonous attacks upon the constitution, then drawing near its close,
and upon the French government. He gave utterance to such
unmeasured abuse and raved in a strain of such wild enthusiasm,
that he was repeatedly called to order, and at length obliged to
sit down and be silent. We have already referred to the senti-
mental scene to which this gave rise among English statesmen
in a parliament full of jurists and egotists, whose sensibility we
do not rate very highly ; we must however at least mention the
subject in this place, because in all works of English history it is

§ II.] CONDITION OF EUROPB TILL APRIL 1792. 205

brought as prominently forward as similar scenes in the life of
Buonaparte by the French historians.

In answer to some very reasonable remarks made by Fox upon
the nature of the constitution projected for Canada by the tories>
Burke replied in a style> which, to avoid characterizing too
harshly, we prefer illustrating by quoting the words of the speaker
himseU. The question turned upon the introduction of a created
aristocracy in Canada ; Fox expressed his doubts with r^ard to
the right of the English government to impose a constitution on
the people mthout their consent or consulting their wishes*
Burke broke loose in the following strain: ^^ A body of rights^
commonly called the righie ofmaUy has been lately imported from
a neighbouring kingdom. The principle of this new code is, that
all men are by nature free and equal in respect of their rights.
If this code therefore were admitted, the power of the house
could extend no fiirther than to call together the inhabitants of
Canada to choose a constitution for themselves. The practical
effects of this system may be seen in St. Domingo and the other
French islands ; they were flourishing and happy till they heard
of the righU of man. As soon as this system arrived among
them. Pandora's box, replete with every mortal evil, seemed to
fly open, hell itself to yawn, and every demon of mischief to over-
spread the face of the country .'' From this it will be seen, that
it was impossible for Fox to remain silent. He answered how-
ever with the greatest caution -and mildness ; stated that with
regard to the rights of man, de entertained a very different
opinion from that of his friend ; that these original rights formed
the basis of the English constitution, and that therefore he could
not possibly disapprove of the measures which had been adopted
by the French national assembly, in order to assist the French
people in the recovery of these rights ; that Burke himself had
taught him, that a whole people never rise up against their rulers
except when there are good reasons and they have been long
provoked. He also therefore rejoiced in a revolution which had
been caused by the same reasons as called forth the English
revolution of 1688.

This was the signal for an outbreak on the part of Burke : he
declared that he certainly had been often of a different opinion
from Fox, but there had been no loss of friendship between them ;
that it was the accursed French revolution which had poisoned
everything. Fox interrupted him and said, that \ht\r friendship

296 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

still remained; but Burke had now once for all gone over to the
tones and the aristocracy of Europe^ and wished to carry along
with him into their camp his admirers and imitators in a splendid
procession. He therefore cried out^ that it was not so ; he had
done his duty, and their friendship was at an end. Fox rose to
reply, but was so deeply affected that tears ran in streams down
his cheeks, and he was unable to find utterance for his words.
The house continued to observe a perfect silence for a consider-
able time, until Fox recovered himself and attempted to soothe
and appease the fanatical Irishman by mild and friendly expres-
sions : Burke however had determined his cx)ur8e, had already
assumed the character of a defender of prejudices and abuses,
and from this moment forward he became the organ of the plans
of the enemies of improvement, and the French always first
learned through him what they had to expect from the English
government.

When Burke thus publicly declared war against every free
thought, or which was not genuine English, and against his
friends, who were favourable to improvement, his manifesto had
already produced powerful effects in the cause of the nobility,
hierarchy and emigrants. The emigrants were raising and con-
centrating an armed force in the territory of the bishop of Worms,
on the left bank of the Rhine, and in that of the bishop of Stras-
burg on the right ; they were negotiating with Prussia, England
and the emperor, to engage in a military crusade against the
new constitution of France. The grand-duke Leopold had suc-
ceeded his brother Joseph in March 1790, and both in his here-
ditary dominions and in Germany showed himself as favourable
to everything old and antiquated as he had been well-disposed to
the better views of the new age in Tuscany. The king of Prus-
sia, from his love of sensuality and mysticism, had long become
the mere tool of diplomatic knaves. The duke of Brunswick,
prince Henry and Herzberg^ however different their opinions and
modes of thinking on various subjects were, still retained a high
degree of public esteem in the first year after the death of Fre-
derick II.; all of them were somewhat disposed towards French
views, and the party who wished to drive them from court and
influence, in order to rule alone, were obliged to have recourse
to every possible means to embitter the mind of Frederick Wil-
liam II. against the French and their ideas. In Prussia and
Austria all the friends of liberty and knowledge were contempo-

§ II.] CONDITION OP EUROPE TILL APRIL 1792. 297

raneoudy dismissed from office. It was probably in the fear of
such a result that the emperor Joseph before his death expressed
such an earnest desire to see his brother, with whom during the
last years of his life he had been on bad terms. Leopold how-
ever, in order to avoid responsibilities and obligations, refused
the invitation of his dying brother, but in the kindest terms ; on
the other hand, through baron Spielmann, he formed connections
with those persons who bound and mystified the king of Prussia
by gratifjring his love of pleasure and by cant,

Leopold^s first anxiety on his accession to the throne was to
avoid a war with Prussia and again to obtain possession of Bel-
gium, and the congress of Reichenbach was to be used as the
means to this end. Spielmann, who was openly negotiating with
Herzberg on the subject of the peace, now entered into secret
communications with Wiillner and Bischoflbwerder, in order to
deceive Herzbei^. Though we should be sorry to use Slur's
'Life of Frederick William' as an authority, yet what he states
(vol. iL pp. 166 — 169) concerning the means and reasons which
were used to withdraw the king from the advice and influence
of Herzberg appears to us highly probable. They succeeded
in persuading the king to desire Herzberg to sign a treaty of
peace, with the conditions of which he was so little acquainted
that they excited his surprise. Herzbei^ was indeed opposed
to every kind of union between Austria and Prussia against
constitutional France; Wollner and Bischofiswerder, on the
other hand, were of opinion with Burke, that it was the duty
of those in power to mistrust every ray of reason, and to hold
those who disseminated or promoted political knowledge in check
by every means in their power, or even to strike them dead. On
this Spielmann is said to have founded his reasons for monarchi-
cal as opposed to democratical principles, and to have brought
them to the immediate knowledge of the king.

Spielmann founded his reasons for a closer alliance between
Prussia and Austria first of all upon the general condition of
European politics, but he appealed more particularly to the danger
with which both were threatened by the irreligious and anti-
monarchical doctrines and speeches of the spirit of the age, which
was poisoned by the French. He called attention to the neces-
sity of the two chief powers of Germany lending their aid and
protection to, the German princes, who by the new French insti-
tutions were injured in their legal rights, possessions and reve-

298 PIPTH PEBIOD« — ^SBOOKO DiyiSION. [CH, I.

nues. The whole system to which Spiefanann was anxiouA to
give effect, and which Wollner and Bischoflbwerder also reoom.^
mended to the king of Prussia, in order to drive away Herzberg^
he described in the following language t '^ It was high time,'* he
said, ^'the princes of Europe should open their eyes and put an
end to the political disputes and the intrigues of diplomatists
against one another ; otherwise they would undoubtedly become
the spoil of their new enemies. It was highly necessary they
should unite to stem the tide of those principles, which raged
like a pestilence, and whose extension no man could either fore-
see or calculate/' These remarks, and such as these, exercised
a great influence on the king of Prussia; the negotiations weze
carried on without Herzberg's knowledge, or as it was said, im-
mediately with the king, and Herzberg received the most unex-
pected command to which we have referred ; on the 27th of July
1790 he subscribed the convention of Reichenbach, which he by
no means approved. From this moment forth, the tracking out
of Jacobinism became a business in Prussia as well as Austria $ the
whole system of police was organized to obscure and perseoute ;
it was however left to the king of Sweden alone to play the Emicho
of a crusade, of which Burke had become the Cucupeter.

Gustavus III. of Sweden, by the help of the three other estates,
which were violently embittered against the nobility, had at length
obtained a completely unlimited dominion. As has been already
stated, he set the conspiracy of Anjala at defiance, and not only
caused a severe punishment to be inflicted upon the originators
of and participators in this association, but, with the consent of
the estates, he also augmented his own royal privileges. By what
was called the act of safety, those limitations were removed from
the royal power, which Gustavus himself had suffered to remain
in 1772, and it also deprived the nobility of the country of th«r
last privileges. By this act, the state-council, whose approbation
had previously been necessary to legalize the king's decisions^
had disappeared ; the king was now able to confer all dignities
or offices at his good pleasure ; he could dismiss firom their office
all those who occupied the higher situations (the judges excepted)
without finding it necessary to institute an investigation $ and
finally, without consulting the council, he could make peace or
declare war. As an autocrat and friend of the French princes^
he was desirous of being able to take the part of the king of
France, in the same manner as Gustavus Adolphus had taken

§ IX.] CONDITION OF HUROFB TILL AFBIL 1792, 999

that of the protestant princes, and Catharine, aa well as the
French princes, assailed him on his weak side. It is generally
stated, that as early as the time of the peace of WereUl, the Rus-
sians spoke of landing some thousands of men, with a yiew to assist
Gustavus to undertake an expedition to Paris for rescuing the
royal family ; certain it is, that at the time of Louis XV I/s flight
the marquis of Bouill^ reckoned on the aid of Gustavus, and that
Gustavus materially injured the cause of the king by correspond*-
ing with BouiU^ and Fersen, with the emigrants and Russians^
like a knight of the times of the court iPanumr, concerning a cru-
sade in &vour of queen Marie Antoinette. The absurd and
noisy way in which the whole aflkir was conducted gave a com-
plete victory to Marat and his associates over everything monar-
chical.

As early as February 1791 arrangements were made for the
king of Sweden^s journey to Aix la Chapelle, which was connected
with Louis's flight; it was really commenced as early as March,
although no one could be deceived at that season of the year by
a pretended visit to the baths, and the king first actually came to
Aix la Chapelle in May. The conferences which in the mean-
time he held with the emigrants were known to every one, and
profited by in Paris, in order to make everything which pro-
ceeded firom Louis an object of suspicion, and monarchy itself
detestable. Gustavus first entered into correspondence with the
German princes, whose nobility used the peasants on their estates
like bond-slaves, and what was stUl more surprising, he invited
the plenipotentiary of the head of the hierarchy of the middle
ages to join in these consultations. Gustavus invited Caprara,
the paped nuntio, to be present at the conferences on French af»
fairs which he held with the duke of Mecklenburg in Ludwigslust.
From Ludwigslust Gustavus proceeded to Brunswick, where he
conversed with the duke, who was trained as completely in the
French school and as well acquainted with distinguished and re-
nowned Frenchmen as Gustavus himself; but he was at that time
still surrounded with the halo of the glory of a great general, a
part of which was dissipated in the following year by his expe-
dition to Champagne ; and finally he went to Aix la Chapelle.

It almost appeared as if the friends of the French king and
his brothers wished to put arms into the bands of the jacobins
against their own protigi, by making these conspiracies against
the new constitution matters of such notoriety, and thus rousing

300 FIFTH PERIOD. — SBCOND DIVISION. [CHi I.

to desperation the whole French nation^ whose affidr the consti-
tution was^ and not that of the small party which at that time was
dreaming of a republic. The king of Sweden remained in Aix
la Chapelle during the whole of the time in which the flight of
Louis XVI. was agitated among his friends^ and put off from one
day to another ; and during the whole period^ that is^ the months
of May and June, he kept up an active correspondence with his
ambassador in Paris5 and through him with the court. In this
interval he not only made arrangements with the marquis de
Bouille^ who was in command of the French troops in Lorraine,
and was to cover Louis's flight, but he gathered emigrants around
him from all ends and corners of Europe, and every friend of
the old order of things who had not yet left France now departed.
Gustavus not only imagined that he was called, but also that, at
the head of the Swedish regiment in the French service {Royal
Su&ioU), he was able to conduct the king of France back to Paris,
together with all the armed emigrants who were to join his
standard.

Gustavus was obliged indeed to relinquish his first undertaking,
which had already been adventurous enough, when the king was
arrested in Varennes (22nd of June), but gave ear to a new and
ridiculous proposal, and we are almost constrained to believe that
the Russians only seemed to coimtenance and support the mad
adventure of the king, in order to expose him to ridicule and
contempt on account of his Quixotic projects. It was said, he
was to take the command of a small army of Russians, which
was to be conveyed in English transports to the mouth of the
Seine, and from thence, under Gustavus's personal leading, to
march upon Paris. In Paris, so said the emigrants and so believed
the princes, all the respectable citizens, who were now cried
down and oppressed by the mob and by their restiess and avari-
cious leaders, were anxiously waiting for their approach and
ready to join their cause. The Swedish nobility contemplated
these follies of their king with double displeasure, partiy because
great sums of money were spent on this journey, and in these
absurd and useless diplomatic, political and military projects,
and the embarrassed state of the finances was continually in-
creasing, and partly because the king thus placed himself com-
pletely in the hands of the Russians, and sacrificed both the
Turks and Poles to a power which had bereft Sweden of one
portion of its territory after another. This led to a great cool-

§ II.] CONDITION OP BUROPE TILL APRIL 1792. 301

ness towards the king among the other three estates, and a formal
conspiracy was formed against him among the nobles. Gusta-
Yus III. thought of being able to secure himself against the
machinations and ill-will of his own subjects by Russian protec-
tion, as he then continually cherished the mad project of aven-
ging the cause of the king of the French by arms on the noblest
men of the nation, and forcing upon them such men as Artois,
Calonne, Breteuil^ Bertrand de MoleviUe, and their associates.
In October 1791 he therefore concluded a close alliance with
Russia, by virtue of which Catharine and Gustavus mutually
bound and pledged themselves to maintain each other's rights
and possessions, or in other words, by virtue of which the king
of Sweden would be in a condition to threaten his estates with
Russian bayonets and cosack sabres, if they did not supply him
with abundance of money. The whole alliance was so arranged as
to allure the vain king into a trap, by furnishing him some relief
in his pecuniary embarrassments, and by promising him armed
assistance to strengthen him in his follies. Properly speaking,
Russia formally took the king of Sweden for eight years into her
pay ; this was concealed under the words, that during the eight
years, which was the time fixed for the treaty, Russia was to
furnish subsidies to Sweden. Besides this, it was stipulated,
that in case of any attack upon Russia, Sweden was to furnish
an auxiliary army of 8000 men, and in case of a war against
Sweden, Russia was to send 12,000 troops to her aid. The
French spies wished to interpret the last clause so as to signify
that Russia destined these 12,000 men as a force to be at the
service of the king in his still projected campaign for the deliver-
ance of the queen of France.

By these negotiations, the empress, by working on his vanity^
manifestly designed to lead the king into a labyrinth firom which
there was no escape. In order therefore to please him, she
allowed the negotiations to be carried on in his own capital, and
according to his desire entrusted the conduct of them to counts
Stackelberg and Pahlen, and professed her readiness to advance
him 12,000,000 of roubles for the purpose of his mad French
project, if the estates of Sweden would guarantee its repayment.
The whole of this plan on the part of the empress was very cun-
ningly devised, for Gustavus found the public feeling in Sweden
to be of such a kind, that when he really wished to summon an
assembly of the estates, he durst not call them together.in Stock-

302 FIFTH FEBIOD. — SECOND DIVIMON. [CH. I.

holm* He was however in need of money, and therefore called
a meeting of the estates in the small town of 6efle> where, as he
beheved, thej would be more in his power. He knew indeed
beforehand, that he could not reckon upon the eighth part of the
votes of the nobles.

The diet of Oefle was opened on the 23rd of January 17^2,
and Gustavus deUvered one of those addresses which had always
previously made a great impression upon the three estates, who
were favourable to his cause; but on this occasion they too were
of opinion that by far too much was required from the poverty
of the country. Since the last war with Russia, sterling money
was rarely to be seen in Sweden, the national stocks had recently
ftUen to 60, and yet the king called upon the estates to impose three
new and heavy burthens upon the kingdom. They were called
upon to discharge the costs of the last war, to contract debts to
the amount of 34,000,000 of dollars, and to place the king in a situ-
ation to enter upon and carry out his crusade against France. The
last olfject was to be effected by consenting to become guarantee
for the repayment of the loan of the 12,000,000 of roubles offered
by Russia. That this loan was destined for a mere adventure may
be seen from the words under which the object was concealed :
^' It shall serve to make the execution of certain plane poeeible,^*
This last proposal however was from the first so hateful even to
the two lowest estates, that the king soon found it advisable to
withdraw the proposition. The other affairs of the diet were
kept in obscurity because there was nothing but resistance*

The king and the crown prince, then thirteen years of age,
were constantly present at all the consultations of the secret
committee of the estates, where all the questions to be submitted
to the assembly were previously discussed and digested, and
in which the debates were led by the king in person. It is
by no means necessary to the object of our general history to
follow out all the movements and discussions which took place
in the oommittee, nor to attempt to bring to light what was
designedly involved in darkness; we refer to the whole affair
merely on account of the result and its immediate consequences,
both of which may be clearly pointed out without any closer
examination of the authorities. As to the result, it was found
necessary, after four weeks' trial, to dissolve the diet, without
even having brought any of the chief demands of the king be*
fore tb« pktmm or fuU assembly of the estates* With r^ard

§ II.] CONDITION or BUBOPE TILL APBIL 1792. 303

to the consequenoesi a report was generally circulated imme-
diately after the 24th of February 1792^ the day on which the
diet had been dissolved^ that the king had it in oontemplation to
change the ancient constitution of the kingdom according to
four estates. All the Swedes whom we have consulted on this
BUl^ect) of whom two were Finlanders belonging to that part of
the province now incorporated with Russia* and one a distin-
guished and well-infonned member of the high nobility5 blessed
the memory of Oustavus for this idea alone^ because they had a
strong conviction^ that this cumbersome constitution was the
root of all the evils of the country. We must however leave it
undetermined^ whether Gustavus^ who was about to take the
field as the sworn champion of the middle ages5 really thought of
thus destroying one of its ftindamental principles. However
this may be, the effect of the report was precisely the same as
if the design had been carried into effect ; the nobility became
daily strengthened in the opinion that their privileges and rights
could only be preserved by getting rid of the king.

The nobility of Sweden were now precisely in the same con«
dition and reduced to the same dilemma as the democrats in
Paris $ the person of the king was the obstcu^le in the way of both ;
neither could attain their object as long as the king was alive,
nor could the obstacle be removed in a legal way* A murder,
such as was thought of in Sweden, or the excitement of a rebel-
lion and the erection of a tumultuary tribunal like that of the
convention in Paris, could never have been confided to any con-^
siderable number of personsi because both are revolting to
humanity. For this reason only a very small number of demo-
crats in Paris, and only certain members of the nobility in Swe-
den were initiated into the secret of the designs against their
respective kings^ although all looked on quietly and occasionally
promoted what they caUed the good eause^ It is however indis*
putable that a much greater number of the Swedish nobility were
aware of and participators in the design of assassinating the king^
than of democrats in Paris, or even members of the convention^
who at the time in which Louis XVI. was to be judicially mur-
dered, were acquainted with the proper views and intentions of
the ringleaders. This is obvious from the events of the day on
which the votes were delivered in the convention concerning the
fiite of the unfortunate king.

According to the best authorities with which we are acquaintedi

304 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

seven-eighths of the Swedish nobilitj were delighted at the
murder of the king, but only a very small number of them were
cognizant of the plan projected by Ankarstrom for the exe-
cution of the deed. The names of the most distinguished of
those who were associated with Ankarstrom in this regicidal plan
are given below in the note on the authority of Arndt'*'. The
other conspirators were aristocrats of that stamp which are called
Carlists in Spain and France, people who are so blinded by their
prejudices as to the nature of crime as to be entitled to some
excuse ; Ankarstrom on the other hand cherished a petty, but
for that very reason an irreconcileable private hatred against the
king. As a disbanded captain, he had been once placed under
arrest, and afterwards it is true set at liberty, but he could never
pardon the king for not having suffered him to be brought before
a court that he might be judicially acquitted.

Counts Ribbing and Clas Horn together with Ankarstrom had
bound themselves by a solemn oath to despatch the king, and
had already made vain attempts to realize their object at Qefle ;
they proved more successful in Stockholm. They selected the
night between the 16th and 17th of March 1792, in which there
was a grand masquerade at court, to shoot the king, and resolved,
if the shot missed, to stab him. The three chief conspirators
drew lots to determine the man who was to do the deed ; the lot
fell upon Ankarstrom, who executed the plan with gloomy reso-
lution and a determined spirit of revenge ; the wound was mortal
The pistol was loaded with three balls, which struck the king in
the back, but he survived fourteen days (till the 29th of March)
and established a regency, which prevented all thoughts of a
revolution.

The assassin boasted of the deed ; and he continued to do the
same when he was afterwards publicly exposed on the pillory as
a regicide, scourged and executed. The nobility derived little

* Ab we can only refer to this Swedish history in as far as it is absolutely
necessary in consequence of its connexion with the general history of Europe^
we refer our readers with perfect confidence to Amdt's ' History of Sweden
under Gustavus III. and Gustavus IV.' He states : '* General count Pechlin,
then in the seventy-second year of his age, was the soul of the conspiracy for
the murder of the king. Associated with him, and probably as the cold-blooded
planner of the scheme, left to the execution of younger men, was Freiherr Thule
Bielke, who poisoned himself before the investigation, Jakob Engestrom, coun-
cillor of the chancery, and his brother, and finally many officers, of whom
Posselt as well as Arndt expressly names three. These were Von Liliehom,
lieutenant-colonel of the guards, major von Hartmannsdorf, and adjutant von
Ehrensward."

§ III.] PRBPAB ATIONS FOB THB WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 305

if any advantage from the murder, for the citizens of Stockholm
were enraged to madness, the three other estates embittered, and
the duke of Sudermannland, how equivocal soever his conduct
in the last Russian war may have been, when placed by the king
at the head of affidrs, was supported by counts Wachtmeister and
Oxenstiema, and generals von Taube and Armfelt. The king's
murderer was discovered by a dagger of a particular description
which he had dropped in the room, and which the cutler who
made it proved to be the same which he had made upon Ankar-
stromas order. Because Charles of Sudermannland was now for
a time at the head of affiurs, a much milder course was pursued
towards these noble and distinguished regicides, than was usual
with respect to plebeian criminals who had been guilty of much
smaller ofiences. Ankarstrom alone was executed ; Horn, Rib-
bmg, Liliehom and Ehrensward were banished, and Pechlin and
Engestrom were sent to a fortress.

§111.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION.

At the time in which the news of the murder of the king
of Sweden reached Paris, the French were already aware that
the part which Gustavus would have gladly played was to be
entrusted to the duke of Brunswick. In the same month in
which this event happened, Francis II. succeeded his brother
Leopold in the government, and was easily prevailed upon to
carry out what Leopold had promised, threatened and agreed
upon, without having been really serious in his intentions. Leo-
pold on his return from Italy and accession to the throne had
taken the same pains to announce a reaction against Joseph II.'s
liberal views of government, as Frederick William II. did in Prus-
sia to make it universally known on his accession, that both in
religious and political questions he was determined to leave the
way which Frederick II. had trod. In religious affairs especially^
he appeared from the very first resolved to return to the times
of Frederick William I. Leopold^s first steps infused such ge-
neral joy into the whole of the Bohemian nobles, that his coro-
nation was solemnized in Prague with unlimited magnificence,
and many families, to do honour to the event, involved themselves

VOL. VI. X

306 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIYIIION. [CH. I«

in overwhelming debts. The papists also, and especiallj the er-
jesuits, had made Leopold happy. He restored to cardinal Mi-
gazzi all that he had been refused or deprived of by Joseph, in
order that he might again employ his influence in the suppression
of knowledge and cause an edict to be published respecting the
censorship of the press, which was precisely of the same charac-
ter as Frederick William II.^s notorious edict on the subject of
religion. The edict was equivocal, and in that respect strictly
resembled the character of Leopold himself, and the whole of his
conduct both in home and foreign afiairs. On the one hand, it
is true, it did not revoke or abolish the liberty of writing and
reading books of every description, which Joseph had conferred,
but it so limited the privilege as to render it completely useless.
All public criticism upon the decrees of the government, all ex*
amination or discussion of ecclesiastical and theological questions
were strictly forbidden, if they disapproved of what was esta-
blished in church or state. This shadow of freedom was left in
existence under the reign of Leopold, but it wholly disappeared
under Francis.

Leopold had brought with him from Tuscany a very perfect
system of secret police ; his means of espionage had been there
80 complete, that he was immediately made acquainted with the
most secret remarks which fell from the lips. Count Sauer, who
was at the head of this institution, afterwards brought spies and
informers into honour, and professors and journalists were em-
ployed as bloodhounds and calumniators. Among these, the
first place in distinction must undoubtedly be assigned to the ex-
jesuit Leopold Aloys Hoffmann ; and unhappily it must be ad-
mitted, that Yon Oemmingen, who was charg^ d'afiaires in the
Palatinate, and whose name has been mentioned among the
number of good German writers, had a very great share in those
journals whose business it was to calumniate the friends of truth
and freedom. Hoffmann was aided in this dishonourable occu-
pation by professor Wallerot, who was looking for SonnenfePs
situation, and afterwards by Lorenz Leopold Haschka and Cail
Hofstatter. These people had their own reasons for terrifying
Leopold with the scarecrow of the Propaganda of the French
jacobins, as Bischoffswerder and his clique had theirs for invest-
ing the king of Prussia more and more with the mist of their
delusions and phantasmagoria. By such means Leopold and
Frederick William, as early as the time of the convention of

§ III.] PBEPABATI0N8 POR THB WAR OP THB RHVOLUTION. 307

Reichenbach^ had become united for a struggle against the new
ideas of the age^ as far as these were disseminated from France.
Both had resolved to attack those ideas, if necessary with arms,
and to stop up the source from which they sprung. The pro-
mise which Leopold had been obliged to madce on his coronation,
to support the cause of the German princes with all his power,
furnished them with the excuse for armed preparations [against
France, which had deprived those princes of their privileges and
properties on the French soil, all of which had been secured to
them by express treaties.

The cause of the injured princes was brought before the diet
of the empire in May 1791 ; Prussia and Austria were not defi-
cient in the use of strong language, but neither Frederick Wil-
liam nor Leopold had any inclination to commence a war. The
affairs required to be all previously arranged in secret negotiations
between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, and afterwards between
these courts and the camarilla of Bertrand de Moleville and the
queen. King George and his cabinet only took an indirect and
concealed participation in these intrigues, whilst in parliament
all hostile feelings towards France were strongly repudiated and
denied. In Prussia, Herzberg stood particularly in the way of
the obscurists and enemies of France ; he was still presiding
over the department of foreign affairs, notwithstanding the un-
equivocal intimation of the king that he would be well pleased
with his retirement from office, and the various means adopted
by the king and Bischoflswerder to make his situation uncom-
fortable. When at length it was seriously resolved to aid the
king of France, and to enable him to throw off the obligations
which had been imposed upon him, it was necessary that Herz-
berg should be absolutely dismissed. He was offended in every
possible way ; his plans were frustrated ; the knowledge of what
was going forward in Vienna was carefully kept from him : still
he remained firm in his office. At length he submitted to the
indignity of having count von Schulenberg-Kehnert and baron
von Alvensleben forced upon him on the 2nd of May 1791> as
colleagues in his department ; and in order to compel him to re-
tire, they proceeded still further. Under the pretence of relieving
him from a portion of his labours, he was forbidden to open the
despatches from Vienna. This induced him to take his leave. He
would however have been earlier removed fi^m office had not king
Frederick William been in some doubt during the early months

z2

308 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

of the year 1791, whether he might not be able to set. some
bounds to the rapidly increasing power of Russia by following
Herzberg's policy and forming a closer union with the French
constitutionalists. The representations of the French emigrants,
and the plenipotentiaries of the unfortunate king and his wife,
turned the scale, and he decided against the more reasonable
policy. The account of the labours and anxieties of the king,
queen, and princes to secure foreign aid is as follows : —

At the close of the year 1790, the king of France sent major-
general Heymann to Berlin, who was favourably received by the
king of Prussia ; at the same time he wrote to the council of the
emperor Leopold (December 1790), to the empress of Russia
and the king of Prussia that notorious letter, in which he fully
expressed his dissatisfaction with the constitution which he had
sworn to defend and maintain, and stated his wish for a general
congress. In his letter to the king of Prussia, in which he in-
troduces the baron de Breteuil as his plenipotentiary, he observes.
That he had written to the emperor of Germany, the empress
of Russia, and the kings of Spain and Sweden, and proposed
that the great powers of Europe, having first set on foot a great
armed force, should meet in solemn congress to discuss and
settle the affairs of France. It is added, that this scheme ap-
peared to him the most likely for success, because by such means
alone the rebels could be restrained from going still further.
These rebels now appeared to be desirous of annihilating the
small remains of royal distinction and prerogatives, and this mea-
sure was to serve to restore the general and much-wished-for
order, and prevent what in this letter is called our plague from
spreading to the rest of Europe. Strict orders were at the same
time given to keep this step absolutely secret. The king of
Prussia entertained the proposal and wrote to the emperor, who
indeed affected great zeal, but, because he was not so courageous
as the king, suffered himself to be guided more by cold and cal-
culating policy, than by the warm zeal of fanaticism. Afler his
Italian fashion, he put off the affSedr by expressing a desire to
draw the circles of the empire, Spain and Naples, into the plan.

Although Herzberg was still at that time nominally at the
head of the cabinet, yet major-general Bischoffswerder, the con-
fidential friend of the king, his mistresses and creatures, was
exclusively entrusted Mith all such secret afiairs as these ; Bi-
schoffswerder now came upon a new idea. The king was not to

§ III.] PBBPARATIONS FOB THE WAB OP THB BBVOLUTION. 309

form an alliance with Leopold^ but with Russia^ and to assist the
king of France with an army ; this plan however was neither
acceptable to Montmorin nor king Louis^ and therefore the pre-
vious scheme was again adopted as early as March 1791. The
course of these secret negotiations served to expose the miserable
nature of all governments and administrations which conduct
public affidrs in obscurity and secrecy and allow themselves to
be influenced by persond views. The favourites and plenipo-
tentiaries of the royal family of Prance, by whom they carried on
these cabab in foreign countries, were actuated by the most
different views and interests; all were afraid that one might
have more influence than another, and they hated each other
cordially. Calonne negotiated in the name of the count d^Artois ;
Stephen count de Diirfort represented the queen ; and baron de
Breteuil king Louis. The last-mentioned had been sent to Ber-
lin, firom whence he used all his endeavours to counteract the
views of the other two.

The emperor Leopold had no serious intentions of commencing
the war of the revolution, nor had the empress of Russia, and
for this reason both willingly allowed the knightly king of Swe-
den to assume a prominent lead. Since December 1790, the
emperor in the name of the diet had made numerous represen-
tations to the French relating to the injuries inflicted on the Ger-
man princes, and the violation of stipulations and treaties which
it involved. The French government replied, that the German
princes in question were IVench vassals, and whatever was in-
flicted on Item in that character did not concern the German
diet. The emperor, having communicated this reply to the diet,
not only called upon the empire to take up the cause of the
princes, but also laid claim to the assistance of the king of Swe-
den, in his character of one of the guarantees for the peace of
Westphalia. The king received the communication from the
diet, reminding him of his obligations in consequence of the
peace of Westphalia, just as he was about to set out on his jour-
ney to Aix la Chapelle, and to wait for king Louis on the fron-
tiers of France, in order to conduct him back to Paris at the
head of the emigrants and other troops. At the same time, Leo-
pold and his notorious sister queen CaroUne of Naples were
travelling together in Italy, whither Calonne and the count
d'Artois went also, with whom was associated count Stephen de
Diirfort as the representative of queen Marie Antoinette. Dur-

310 PIFTH PERIOD. — 8B00ND DIVISION* [CfL I.

fort had at first gone to Brussels with letters of introduction
from the queen to her aunt the arch-duchess Christina^ and went
to Italy apparently with nothing more than powers from the
arch-duchess. The king of Prussia had also despatched thither
his mystical friend and adviser major-general Bischofiswerder;
but the whole result of these consultations was nothing more
than empty threats^ which were very injurious and could profit
nothing. On the 18th of May, the emperor made a declaration
in Pavia, that he and his allies w^ould use their best endeavours
to oppose French politics, their consequences and efiTects.

Before Leopold issued this provoking declaration, which was
very disadvantageous to Louis XVI., without having adopted
any measures whatever to give it effect, lord Elgin had been
invited to the conferences, and declared that Pitt and king
Qeorge approved of all that the others resolved, although they
could take no official part in the resolution. Lord Elgin
was afterwards also present at the congress which the above-
mentioned plenipotentiaries held with the emperor in Mantua.
In that city Calonne submitted to the parties then present a
plan of active military operations, which was corrected by the
emperor himself, although he entertained no serious idea of
engaging in such a war. Grenville afterwards boldly affirmed in
his place in parliament, that no such project as far as England
was concerned had ever existed. In order that he might be able
to do this without fear of being convicted of falsehood, precautions
had been used in Mantua to employ the king's name merely as
elector of Hanover. The result of the congress was, that on the
20th of May 1791 the emperor wrote a circular, which was
afterwards regarded as a document calculated to prove the
accusations made against Louis, for it was used by persons who
wished to bring him to an account for his flight^ lliis circular,
as well as the threatening declaration issued firom Padua on the
6th of July, was proposed by the same emigrants who in the fol*
lowing year drew up the miserable manifesto of the duke of
Brunswick. That no treaty was concluded either in Mantua or
elsewhere to give efiect to these threats appears to us certain
firom many other circumstances, but especially firom the even-
tually threatening declaration of the third act of the intrigue^ the
imperial circular issued firom Padua on the 6th of July**^.

* " Lea priDcipales puissances sont invitees k s'unir & S.M.I, pour declarer
h la France^ que lea souTerains regardent tons la caaae du roi tr^-cfar6tieB

^ III.] PBEPABATION8 FOB THX WA.B OF THB BXVOLUTION. Sll

An inquiry into all the negotiations which were at that time
carried on with Leopold does not belong to the succeeding
history ; we have only to do with the facts and with what came
to light; and so far as we know^ from the time of Herzberg's
removal^ the king of Prussia^ and the mystical and licentious
people of both sexes by whom he was surrounded^ were much
more zealous in the cause of fanaticism and darkness than the
emperor. This was the particular care of the mystical and jug-
gling major-general to whom the king left the regulation of
everything^ and who had previously been guilty of the meanness
of delivering up to the emperor the whole of the correspondence
which the malcontents in Hungary in the reign of Joseph^ when
excited and encouraged by Prussia, had carried on with the king
of Prussia, Leopold was too cold and too deeply imbued with
Italian caution to give way to passion. No one was called to
account for these letters5 except count George von Festeticz, and
he was kept in arrest only a very short time. Bischofiswerder
had scarcely returned from Italy when he was sent to Vienna,
where he entered upon negotiations with Kaunitz, who was
vastly his superior, and had very different notions of priestcraft
from his. The treaty of alliance between Austria and Prussia,
which was concluded by them on the 25th of July, has never
been published*.

It is obvious that in this treaty the cunning Austrian cabinet
profited by the desire of the king of Prussia to play the same
character in France which the duke of Brunswick had played in
the Dutch revolution, in order to induce Russia to conclude a
peace with the Turks ; it is declared that the congress concern-
ing the affairs of France should be postponed ^^ till Ruisia had

eomme la leor propre, qu'lls demandtnt que te prince et sa famille sclent mis
sur le champ en pleine libert^^ qu'ils te reuniraient pour venger avec le plus

grand 6clat tous les attentats ulterieurs quelconques qu'enfin ils ne r^on-

nattraient comme lols constitutionelles l^gitimement Stabiles en France, que
cellea qui seront munies du consentement volontaire dn roi jouiwant d'une liberty
parfaite ; mais qn'au contraire, ils emploieront tous les moyens qui sont en
leur puissance pour faire cesser le scandale d'une usurpation des pouvoirs oui
porteroit le caractire d'une r^lte ouverte, et dont il importeroit h tous les
gouvememens d'Europe de r^primer le funeste exempkt"

* Bertrand de Moleville gives a minute account, but he can only be used
with great caution. Whoever is disposed to inquire into the subject of the
conferences and agreements in Padua and Manlua, will do well to consult the
'Pikes Justificatives' appended to S^gur'd 'Vie de Fr^. GuiU. 11./ or 'Ta-
bleau Politique de I'Europe/ &c. The passage referring to this subject will
he found in vol. ii. pp. 32S-— 331.

312 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BOOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

vncuie peace taith the Turka!^ As soon as this event took place^
then a defensive alliance was to be concluded among the chief
powers of Europe. Just at this moment, however, an under-
standing was come to respecting Poland. Russia was prepared
to conclude a peace with the Turks ; Leopold therefore made
concessions with regard to the time of holding the congress, and
the meeting was accordingly fixed for the 25th of August. The
elector of Saxony, who neither agreed with the two powers in
respect to Poland nor France, was invited to join the congress,
and was very unwillingly obliged to grant the use of his castle
of Pilnitz for the place of meeting. Before the emperor went to
meet the king of Prussia at Pilnitz, he caused an address to be
issued through the diet on the I7th of August, in which the
circles of the empire were exhorted to make preparations for
arming. The electors Maximilian Joseph of Cologne and Cle-
ment Wenzeslaus of Treves opened their states to the emigrants,
who collected and organized an army in and around Worms and
along the banks of the Rhine, but at the same time they con-
trived to expose themselves and their associates to the contempt
and dislike of the whole world in Schonbomslust near Coblenz,
and in this city itself by their licentious conduct and dissipated
habits brought with them from Versailles.

The king of Prussia also invited Carl Joseph of Erthal, elec-
tor of Mayence, to come to Pilnitz, and to bring with him a plan
of operations ; Frederick William followed his licentious course
of Ufe in Pilnitz as he was accustomed to do in Berlin, and en-
trusted the whole direction of the intrigues and cabals to Bi-
schofiswerder. The two monarchs were also accompanied by
their successors, and the emperor was besides attended by baron
von Spielmann, a diplomatist who had been brought up under
Kaunitz, and who therefore well understood how to make an
admirable use of the mystical blindness of the king. He pre-
tended that he and the emperor were as blind enemies of every
innovation, and as full of hatred against heterodoxy and demo-
cracy, as the king and the major-general really were ; but all
this meant in reality nothing more than the adoption of the best
means by the emperor and Spielmann to realize the plans of
Austria respecting Poland and the Turks. It would appear in-
deed after the celebrated resolutions of the congress of Pilnitz,
in which ^reatenings <vvere launched forth against France, as if
it reaiUy had been the intention of the sovereigns immediately to

§ III.] PBEPABATION8 FOR THE WAR OF THE REVOLUTION. 313

commence the crusade which had been threatened by Burke,
and to hasten to the assistance of the feudal nobility and the
priests ; but there is a degree of hesitation lurking behind the
threats which dispels the illusion. Besides the thens and in
ease thats, there still remains the limitation, that under no cir-
cumstances shall a campaign be undertaken against France till
Austria and Prussia have come to a clear understanding with
each other respecting Poland and the Turks.

They had not reckoned upon the presence of the count d^Ar-
tois; for although Frederick William might have found the count's
mode of life and the cabals of Calonne not irreconcileable with
what was carried on by himself and around him in Berlin, Leo-
pold had at an earlier period absolutely forbidden either the one
or the other to show himself in Vienna, and used some such ex-
pressions with regard to Calonne as Frederick William I. re-
specting count Gorz, the minister of Charles XII. of Sweden,
when he commanded him to leave Berlin in twelve hours, '' be-
cause he was likely to make a Brauillamini among his ministers"
The count however relied upon Prussia, and arrived uninvited
immediately after the first conference of the two monarchs in
Pilnitz. The suite of the French prince consisted of Calonne,
the marquis de Bouill^, general Flachsland, the duke de Polig-
nac and the prince of Nassau-Siegen. Spielmann and Bischofis-
werder were entrusted by the two monarchs with the compo-
sition of a declaration, to be issued in their joint names, whilst
they themselves made a visit to Dresden. The count d'Artois
contrived to have Calonne associated with the ministers of Prus-
sia and Austria in the execution of this commission ; but all his
exertions proved vain to introduce some sentences and expres-
sions in his style into the manifesto, which was dictated by the
emperor and reduced into form by Spielmann. On the return
of the monarchs from Dresden, however, the cabals of those
were attended with success who in 1789 and 1830 destroyed
themselves and the Bourbons by their blind and reckless hatred
against all enlightenment and public liberty. The threatening
and untrue phraseology introduced at the conclusion of the ma-
nifesto was Calonne^s invention, recommended by the French
to the Prussians, and forced by the latter on the adoption of the
emperor. It is as follows : '^ Their majesties have resolved, with
one accord, to render every assistance in their power for the
restoration of monarchical power in France, by the employment

314 FIFTH PERI0D.---8B00ND DIVISION, [CH* !•

of the necessary military means^ and will therefore immediately
put their troops in motion in order to be in a condition to use
them.'' The prudent elector of Saxony refused to attach his
name to a manifesto thus concluded by phrases from the ma-
nufactory of a Frenchman notorious for his falsehood and de-
ceit.

The whde oonfereiioe in Pilnita was a men mystification of
the European public; but it was attended with the most dread-
ful and ruinous consequences to the nations. The emperor im-
mediately afterwards completely repudiated the articles which
were there said to have been agreed upon^ and the English mini-
sters declared loudly and solemnly in parliament^ tiiat they knew
nothing of the congress of Pilnitz. The author of the ' Ckmtribu-
tions to the History of the Lives of Joseph II.> Leopold IL and
Francis 11./ which appeared in 1800 (year 8 of the French re-
public)! whose accounts authenticate themselves^ says however^
that Leopold himself^ after having obtained the consent of Rus^
sia^ Spain^ and the Italian powers^ told him^ that the points
which Martens gives as such were reaUy articles in the treaty
of Pilnitz*. England also declared that she fully approved of
all that had been agreed upon^ with the exception of the resort
to force of arms. She would have nothing to do with a war for
principles^ with which they threatened France ; and if there were
no questions of meum and iuum, she would remain neutral^ in
the spirit of all those practical souls whom Dante excludes both
from heaven and hell because they are concerned about them-
selves alone.

The emptyi equivocal and indefinite declaration of Austria
and Prussia proved irremediably ruinous to the king of France
and the monarchy itself^ in consequence of the increased inso-
lence of his brothers, who were then residing and canying on
their debauchery and revels in Schonbornslust near Coblenz*
At the very moment in which Louis accepted and swore to main-
tain the constitution^ his brothers publicly declared that he had

* Marten's ' Recueil/ vol. v. p. 36.— 1. The poweis were to use all their
inflaence to abolish the oew aod injurious constitution, and to re-establish the
old one. 2. The originators and promoters of the revolution were to be visited
with a signal punishment as a terror to Europe. S. Austria and Prussia were
to be indemnified for ^the costs of the execution by portions of the FVench
territory. 4. Prussia and Austria mutually bound themselves to render each
to the other all necessary aid in case of disturbances in their respective coun-
tri«t.

§ III.] PBEPABATI0N8 FOR THB WAR OF THE BBVOLUTION. S15

awom falsely. They asserted that the kiag^ so far firom appro-
ving of the coQStitutioDj would heartily support the armaments
which were being set on foot by the enemies of France against
the kingdom^ as soon as he was out of the influence of the
estates and his people. Immediately after the declaration of the
two great powers^ there appeared the well-known manifesto of
the two priaces issued from Schonbomslust in the form of a let-
teT) and to which we have often referred* 5 and the emigrants
continued to urge on their military preparations against their
country. Under a commission from the princes, Bouill^ travelled
to Sweden and Russia, because Leopold was by no means willing
to take the field in their cause. He hastened to Petersburg]
where he soon perceived, that although promises were abundant,
no reliance could be placed on any very active measures; in
Sweden, on the cont^rary, he found the king eager and zealous
for the adventure, if he had only the money to meet the ex-
penses. This led to the negotiations with Prussia to which we
have previously referred, and which hastened the assassination of
Qustavua.

Bouille in his Memoirs Ifrankly expresses his regret, that the
beautiful plan which he and the king of Sweden had at that time
carved out for reducing the rebels, that is, the great majority of
the French people, to subjection, had been so unseasonably pre-
vented by Ankarstrom's deed of violence. According to this
chimera, Russia was to land from 30,000 to 40,000 men near
Dimkirk, which were to be placed under the command of king
Qustavua and the marquis de BouiU^ } Spain was to contribute
to the expenses of the expedition, and all those Frenchmen who
were dissatisfied with the new order of things were to unite
with this force. Whilst the Swedes, Russians and emigrants
were to advance fin>m the north direct upon Paris, the Pied-
montese, Spaniards, Qermans and Prussians were to cross the
firontiera of their respective territories and overrun the whole
country. In fact battalions of the army of the French abso-
lutists were at that time recruited and organized with foreign
or borrowed money at Ettenheim, Worms, and in the territories
of the electors of Cologne and Treves. Sweden and Russia were

* Although the " Declaration da Roi de Prusae et de TEmperear da 27 Aoiit
1791 " appears in all worka on the revolation, we may observe, that it is also
to be found among the 'Pieces Justificatives ' in part ii. of Sugar's 'Tableau
Politique de I'Burope.' There also may be seen the ' Lettre des Princes Fr^rei
dtt Roi/ which fills twelve dosely-printed pages^ pp.340— 358.

316 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BCOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

the only countries which would not receive or acknowledge even
the notification of the constitution approved by king Louis.

The fanatical democrats in Paris availed themselves of the
folly of the emigrants^ the illusions of the princes of Europe and
the weakness of the king, who had openly approved and sworn
to maintain a constitution against which he secretly protested^
in order to raise suspicions against the whole monarchical sy-
stem, and particularly against the men who had founded this
system anew by means of the constitution. This was the more
easily accomplished, as the constitutional members of the na-
tional assembly or the whig nobility among the French laid
themselves open to exposure at a great many points. These
public men, Lafayette and a few others excepted, as early as
October 17^1, began to lament the loss of the quiet enjoyment
of their rank and their property, the pleasures of the court, the
conversation and literature of tibeir saloons, and the meetings of
men of learning, virtuosi, academicians and parasites in their
castles; that is, they began to be filled with dread when they
looked at the wild chaos fix)m which the new social world was
to be formed. These xlistinguished friends of freedom now first
began to feel, what they had forgotten in the tumult of the sit-
tings of 1789 and 17^0, and during the enchantment of the in-
cense which filled Keeker's saloons, that the emigrants in every
respect stood in a much clearer relation to them than the great
mass of the people did. This fact by no means escaped the at-
tention of the organs of the new age, and they preached up the
total uprooting of the whole of this old, lordly and distinguished
generation, because otherwise the new and common generation
could never spring up.

At the time in which the purer republicans had the power in
their hands, this conviction guided the course of action of such
men as Potion, Barbaroux, Condorcet, Lanjuinais and Gregoire,
and such women as the wives of Roland and Condorcet, and at
a later period Charlotte Corday; for of such women as the
countess Genlis and her young pupil Louis Philippe of Orleans,
we shall not speak, although the latter even then visited the
clubs, and in his journal destined for GenUs and now printed,
he praises those men who at that time were desirous of putting
off for a while the interests of right, justice and morality, in
order to carry through the regeneration of the nation. The
weakness of the originators of the constitution, who at this time

§ III.] PREPARATIONS FOR THE WAR OP THE REVOLUTION* 317

were betrayed by the king, hated by their own frienda and rela-
tions, who had fled from the country and were threatened with
death by both the republican factions, may be best learned from
the rhetorical loquacity of the good old Lacretelle respecting
himself and his situation during the revolution*. At the time of
which we are now speaking, Lacretelle was private secretaiy to
the duke de Rochefoucault ; he informs us of the kind of society
which assembled around the duke on his estates, and reports
the conversations which were there held at a time when resolute
decision was absolutely necessary, and boasts of the folly of the
constitutional nobles in collecting around the king at the Tuile-
ries, with a foolish enthusiasm almost equal to that of those who
were really friends of the old rigime. Half-measures, absurd
sentimentality, courtliness and dress swords, — what miserable
weapons against the rage of the people and the storm of giants !
What the emigrants and princes effected by their threats and
warlike preparations, and the constitutionalists by their anxieties
and servile and courtly importunities, that is, by their affected
fidelity, will be seen from a hasty glance at the state of afiairs in
Paris.

As soon as it became evident in 1792, that the new order of
things could only be maintained and a return to the old effec-
tually prevented by a complete subversion of things, by the ex-
citement to action of the usually indolent masses, the expulsion
of all the higher classes of society, and the introduction of' the
lower into their places, principles of justice and morality were
necessarily suspended ; men alone were capable of effecting this
change who were dead to all feelings of shame and possessed of
a degree of clever audacity which set the opinions of the wise
and good at defiance. The constitutionalists attached themselves
to the emigrants or to the king, who was allied with foreign
powers against his own people, and was ready to employ their
armies for the subjection of France ; the republicans of a milder
caste, and therefore the majority, were obliged to resign the con-
duct of affairs to those who. were able to rouse and inflame the
minds of the savage and ferocious mobs. The jacobins, properly
speaking, were as little able to do this as the girondists ; Robes-
pierre could only do it through Marat, who, although capable of

• See Lacretelle's 'Dix Annees d'Epreuves pendant la Revolution,' (Paris
and Leipzig, 1842,) chap. iii. pp. 55—72.

318 FIFTH PBRIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

using language suitable to the end^ was not a man of deeds and
violence ; this fell wholly to the lot of the Parisians who thun-
dered in the Palais Royal and the wine-shops, or who, like Ca-
mille Desmoulins and Danton, set on fire the passions of the
CordeUers* The most enlightened, and partly at least morally
incorrupt men, such as Manuel, Potion, Condorcet, Buzot, Gr^
goire and very many others, among whom may be even ranked
Barr^re, who only became desperate when he wished to remain
at the helm, favoured murder and crime only as a means and
not as an end. They believed that by such means they could
again bring to a state of repose the fearful engine which they
themselves had set in motion. In this they made a grand mis-
take ; the stream whose dam they had l[)roken swept them to
destruction. It was only cold, thoughtful, envious and vulgar
men, such as Barras, Fouch^, Merlin, Cambac^res and Sidyes,
that is, diplomatists, who reaped the harvest of the revolution, as
diplomatists usually do, and enjoyed the fruits of what their
courageous colleagues had gained by their strength or had sown
by the shedding of blood. The crowds of the people, the masses
of criminals who collected in Paris, were obliged to be used as
instruments to destroy and uproot everything old, in order
that the soil might be left open for the free growth of the new ;
and these people could only be roused to action by speeches
which make the blood run cold. This was well known to Ca-
mille, Danton, Marat, F^ron, Hubert and others, and they alone
were listened to in 1792.

Blind superstition and wild infidelity, ridiculous and extrava-
gant feelings of penitence, feticism and mechanical devotion al-
ways lie slumbering beside one another, with a total forgetfulness
of God and the most audacious crimes in the minds of the
masses, — a fact established by the history of the Eastern nations
of all ages, as well as by the history of our own times, and by
everything which took place and is now taking place in Cologne,
Treves and Bavaria, and therefore the masses are alternately
ruled by Jesuits and cordeliers. The former are now gathering
thousands to their standard by low, degrading and demoralizing
superstitions ; the others, in the period of whose history we are
now treating, tore up the very seeds of religious poetry from the
hearts of the people by means of absurd, wicked and blasphe-
mous spectacles. We mention this matter in this place, once

§ III.] PBBPARATI0N8 FOB THB WAB OP THB BBVOLUTION. 810

for all^ incidentally, as we shall only hereafter very briefly notice
these revolting scenes, which are to be found described in so
many other works, and merely in as far as they may be neces-
sary for the object we have in view. The numerous idealists
among those who excited all this republican clamour, not only
among the girondists, but even among the men of terror, Robes-
pierre, and St. Just himself not excepted, properly speaking, only
wished to root out the old civilization to make room for a new.
They perceived too late that this was impossible, and they had
followed a delusion. The savage and wicked men, the criminals,
whom they were obliged to employ, because they shared the
coarse enjojrments of the masses, frequented their haunts and
orgies, and were masters of their language and modes of thought^
were merely regarded as machines. The most of the republicans
Were therefore able to serve Buonaparte afterwards with a good
conscience, as converts, without being subject to the imputation
of being either renegades or venal. Marat and Robespierre were
indeed never converted; even Camille Desmoulins however
shrunk back when he perceived into the hands of what sort of
people he had thrown the power of the government by the advo-
cacy of his kind of freedom, and Danton himself became weary ;
otherwise he would have been able to maintain his ground.
We cannot altogether overlook everything which has been re*
ported of Danton and his end ; for careful and scrupulous exami-
nation has taught us, that in Paris the anecdotes, speeches and
sentimentality of the republic and the empire have been pointed
and ^mmed in circulation and believed like the legends of the
holy garment. They bear the same relation to history as the
anecdotes of Plutarch. But although Danton's last words may
have been invented for him, they still have a fbundation in truth.
The man who had been guilty of corruption, murder, spoliation
and treachery, is made to announce with prophetic and patriotic
inspiration, at the moment of his execution, that his name would
become immortal for having, by the perpetration of great crimes,
rooted out the old abuses, when this could, be effected by no
other means.

320 FIFTH PEBIOD, — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

HISTORY OF GEBMANT AND FRANCE TILL THE INSTITUTION
OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

The dissolution of the old order of things in France was fol-
lowed with considerable rapidity by the introduction of the new ;
but the establishment of the relation of the several authorities^
and the interference of the one with the other, required time,
and was also intentionally delayed, because there was a desire to
prevent the success of the constitution. In the meantime arms
had been placed in the hands of the whole people ; the poorer
class, who were merely armed with pikes, by the reception of the
citizens into the national guard, were converted into a kind of
ochlocratic army. By the union of the jacobin clubs in every
city, town and village with the parent club in Paris, the last was
raised to a dreadful central authority of the ochlocracy, and even
a species of tumultuary justice and police was exercised by the
presidents of the clubs, sections and communes. Although the
course of demagogy in Paris and the relation of the different de-
mocratical parties has been already explained in the first division
of this volume (§ I.) till the month of March 17^2, we must
however return to the subject, in order to place in a just light
the connexion of the new ministry forced upon the king by the
European monarchs.

As early as September 1791^ Prussia and Austria were ready
to repudiate all that they were said to have resolved upon and
threatened at Pilnitz, and the emperor even went so far as to
cause a new circular to be issued, in which he in some measure
recalled everything which he had previously declared, because
the king of France at that time had formally and solemnly re-
cognized the new constitution^.

* The emperor declares : " His majesty desires to inform all the courts to
whom his first circular from Padua of the 6th of Jul}* was sent, and together
with them Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Portugal, that the relations of the
king of France which gave rise to that circular are now changed, and he there-
fore feels himself compelled to communicate his views to the above-mentioned
powers. His majesty believes it may now be properly assumed, that the king
of France is free, and that consequently His acceptance of the new constitution
and everything else which he has done must be regarded as valid. He trusts
that this acceptance will tend to restore better order in France, and will con-
tribute to the promotion of moderation, according to the wishes of his most
christian majesty/' &c. The threat however still remains at the conclusion :

§ IV.] GERMANY AND FRANCS TILL 1792. 321

Notwithstanding this, the emigrants, king Gustavus III., Ca-
tharine II. and the marquis de Bouiil^ still continued busy. On
the 19th of October the treaty concerning the army which was
to be sent to the aid of the emigrants was concluded in Dron-
tingholm, and Gustavus appointed count Oxenstiema, and Ca-
tharine, Romanzow, who was afterwards chancellor, and the son
of the field-marshal of the same name, to be their respective
plenipotentiaries to the princes at Coblenz. This hastened the
steps of those men in Paris who were engaged in embittering
the magistracy, the inferior authorities and the legislature against
the king and against the aristocracy of the departmental admi-
nistrations. The imprudence of the king of Sweden^ and the
pretended zeal of the empress of Russia in the cause of the emi-
grants, who continued to threaten an invasion, lightened the diffi-
culty of introducing and carrying into effect the measures against
the nobility and nonjuring priests, which have been already
mentioned (§ I.).

The legislative assembly placed their decree of the 1st of Ja*
nuary 1792, which has been already referred to, and in which
the punishment of death was pronounced against every French-
man who did not immediately leave the armed assemblies of the
emigrants, in direct opposition to those promises which the em-
press Catharine had made to marshal Broglio, and of which the
marshal's companions were in the habit of boasting. The vio-
lent members of the legislative assembly further grounded their
complaints against Delessart and his colleagues, particularly on
the fact of their being fully cognisant of all that was going on in
Sweden, Prussia, Vienna, and among the emigrants, and that
they for that reason protracted the negotiations with the emperor
and the German empire. The diplomatic committee of the legis-
lative assembly, it was said, from the desire of gratifying the mi-
nister, delayed their report on their relations to the emperor and
the empire, and the preparation of the report, which had been
at first entrusted by the committee to Koch, was finally put into
the hands of Brissot.

This occurred just at the time when the emperor Leopold,

" His mijesty believes that the powers to whom he has applied will not recede
from their threatening measures, but watch the progress of events, and de-
clare, through their respective ministers in Paris, that their alliance still coh-
tinues, and that they are prepared, on every needful occasion, to maintain the
rights of tiie king and the French monarchy."

VOL. VI. Y

322 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SBOOND DIVISION* [CH. I.

the king of Prussia, and finally^ the estates of the empire for-
bade the formation of an emigrant corps on the territory of the
empire, and the emperor punished some emigrants in Brussek
who had insulted the French national colours.

The emperor wished by all means to avoid the appearance of
desiring to make war on France on account of the emigrants,
and therefore he merely insisted upon the restoration of their
ancient feudal rights to the German princes, counts and barons ;
this however was impossible. The French at that time still con*
tinned to offer pecuniary compensation ; duke Charles of Deux
Fonts, his brother and successor Maximilian Joseph, the duke
of Wirtemberg and the prince of Lowenstein Wertheim were
however the only claimants who entertained the proposal ; the
others relied upon the emperor, who had indeed shortly before
granted assistance to the elector of Treves. The French go-
vernment had threatened the elector with hostilities, in case he
did not remove the troops assembled by the emigrants fixMU his
territories before the 15th of January 1792. On this the em-
peror repUed to the French, that in this case, field-marshal
Bender, commander-in-chief in the Netherlands, had orders to
assist the elector, but he also at the same time required him to
remove the emigrants from the frontiers.

The king of Prussia, although he did not declare his opinion
with greater decision than the emperor, nevertheless showed
much more clearly by his conduct how strongly he was attached
to absolutism and the abuses of the olden times, and therefore
determined to extend military assistance to the king of France,
the princes and emigrants, against the whole body of the nation.
In his own mind he had already fixed upon the duke of Bruns*
wick as commander of the army destined to operate against
France; he retained major-gena:iil Heymann, who had been
sent as ambassador to BerUn from king Louis and his brothers,
in his own suite, afterwards took him into his immediate service,
and openly distinguished him above the ambassadors who had
been sent to him from the constitutional French ministry* The
French ministers at first sent monsieur de S^ur, a man of the
highest rank, who had passed through all the various schools of
human life, and for several years enchanted the empress Catha-
rine with his conversation. On his return from Petersbui^ M.
de S^gur had put on the constitutional dress, but, like miost of
his companions of the same class, did not on that account make

§ IV.] OEBMANY AND FBANCB TILL 1792. 323

the smallest change either in his life^ modes of thinking or man-
ners ; when however he was sent to Berlin^ he was badly received
by the king. If we may place any reliance on the marquis de
Custine, who has recently published a book upon Russia, this
almost brought him to the determination of cutting his own
throat, as it is stated in the work just mentioned, which how-
ever cannot be regarded as historically trustworthy; he was
however by no means politely received* by the king at his first
audience on the I2th of January, whilst Heymann at the same
time received the most friendly attentions from his majesty. In
fact his proposals met with no favourable reception either from
the king or his ministers, Finkenstein and Schulenberg. This
did not occur, as the insipid marquis alleges, and seeks, by
an authentic anecdote, which however has no foundation in
trutht, to prove, that the nature of the reception arose from a
particular and personal dislike to S^gur, in which case we would
not allude to the matter, but it was in reality an intentional po-
litical demonstration against the constitution. Who could have
been better calculated for an ambassador to the court of Frede-
rick William than S^gur, a man who had proved so suitable to
Catharine and her successive personal favourites ? Personally,
S%ur afterwards found himself comfortable enough in Berlin,
and even suffered himself to be deceived by the attentions which
he received.

Towards the close of January he saw clearly that he had been
deceived, for it was expressly stated to him in Berlin, that Prus-
sia must absolutely decline such a union as that which he pro-
posed with new France, and was determined to co-operate cor-
dially with the emperor. This induced S^gur to apply for his

* "Do not attack Austria, and leave Germany in peace, and I will not make
war upon you."

t We shall here refer to a passage of the ' Raseie en 1639 par le Marquis
deCustine/ Paris, 1843, in which fa^ relates this unknown anecdote eoncern-
ing this subject, but to which we can give no credit, for the single reason, that
the marquis alleges that S^gur immediately took his departure, and that his
father had replaced him. This young man (Custine) came to Berlin on a spe*
cial mission, nor can Segur have lost the favour of Frederick William by a
note which he sent in from Catharine ; for he remained till the end of January,
and brought the grand commander von Maisonneuve in consequence into dis-
favour with the king, by employing him to write a letter to hia migesty dis-
suading him from the war, but afterwards found a support in the chevalier de
Bonfflers, so that he remained agreeably in Berlui, till he perceived that at-
tempts w«i« made to deceive him by pretended favour*

y2

324 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

recal. Before S^r^s departure from Berlin^ the constitu-
tionalists who then ruled public affidrs, Talleyrand^ De Stael^
Rochefoucault and others^ who had also made Narbonne mi-
nister of war^ had sent another young and liberal marquis to
Germany. The marquis de Custine^ who was then scarcely
twenty years old, (father of the author of the work on Russia^
and son of the hussar who marched against Mayence,) had been
directed to proceed to the duke of Brunswick, in order to turn
his inclination towards the French and his personal vanity to
some political account. He was commissioned to offer to the
duke, with the full acquiescence of the oppressed king of France,
the supreme command of the French army, with the same un-
limited power which had been formerly exercised by marshal de
Saxe. The duke, it is true, was far too prudent to accept the
offer, and answered somewhat contemptuously, that he was sorry
he could not entertain their proposal, because he had already
accepted the chief command of the Prussian army. Before Du-
mourier declared war against the emperor, he made another
attempt by sending young Custine again to Berlin, because he
knew how strongly the duke and prince Henry were attached to
the French, their loose literature and its masters, such as Mar-
montel, Diderot, &c. The second mission was a failure as well
as the first ; we see however, on this occasion, why the men of
the people in Paris wished to know nothing of the liberality of
the nobility, and why they were disposed to place as littie con-
fidence in the yoimg and liberal courtiers as they had previously
done in the old and illiberal ones.

YoungCustine on his arrival in Berlin found madamedeSabran,
his mother-in-law, already there, in the character of an emigrant,
violently embittered against the government of which he was the
representative, and who importuned him to remain with her in
Prussia. Instead therefore of fiilfiUing the object of his mission
and prevailing upon prince Henry to promote the views of Du<
mourier, count Kalkreuth, the confidential friend of the princes,
strenuously urged him to separate himself fi:om the cause of the
plebeians and to join the patricians and princes. Custine indeed
returned to Paris, but he and his compeers were as Uttie able as
Noailles to gain the confidence of a people who were striving
afi;er an ideal perfection, and at that time fiill of zeal, because,
as Dumourier very justiy observes, the plebeians soon saw

§ IV.] GERMANY AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 325

that these genUemen of good tone looked upon them with
contempt*.

Dumourier immediately perceived that he had still need of the
co-operation of the deputies and magistrates who were like-minded
with himself, that their time however was over, and that he must
secure the most powerful among the jacobins, because his own
friends and their colleagues the girondists could never be in-
duced, like Robespierre and Danton, to prefer policy to mora-
lity* Dumourier at first appeared on the stage of politics as a
constitutional royalist, who had approximated to his colleagues
the girondists because they were the mildest and most moderate
amongst the numerous republicans ; he even suffered himself to
be reconmiended to the king by the unconditional royaUst La-
porte, who managed the bribery department of the civil list ;
Laporte however saw through his plans and gave warning of the
danger of employing himf*

On Delessart^s fall, Dumourier very skilfully contrived to push
himself into the diplomatic department, although, properly
speaking, he had been only called to Paris to imdertake a com-
mand in the army, because at that time all the older and more
experienced officers were among the emigrants. He came to
Paris as a lieutenant-general, because, in the beginning of the
year 1792, three armies had been assembled on the frontiers of
the kingdom. The first, on the northern frontier, was placed under
the command of Rochambeau, the second under Lafayette on
the Moselle and Meuse, and the third under Luckner in Alsace
and Lorraine. Dumourier was destined for a command under
Luckner in Metz, but he contrived to recommend himself to
Gensonne the girondist, who promoted his views as a diplomatist.
It was found impossible to choose a friend of De Stael, Talley-

* Dumourier, on whom we rarely place confidence^ in reference to this
point, says very justly : — " L'assembl^ legislative ^tait couverte de ridicule
par les anciens constitutionnels, chefs du club des Feuillans, qui croyaient, en
la penlant, se faire rappeler et (that was the thing) Stablir le mihne des deux
chambres t Vinstar de I* Angleterre," (La Vie et les M^moires du G^n^ral Du-
mourier, vol. ii. p. 149.)

. t This Iwtendant de la lieie civile, whose accounts of the immense sums
employed for anti-revolutionary purposes were found in an iron safe and
printed, and whom Dumourier, who was his friend, brought into the ministry
in 1792, in a letter to the king of the date of March 1791, writes as follows z
" Avec cela. Sire, Dumourier est r^volutionnaire ;" and at the conclusion of the
letter : " Quant k Dumourier il a de Tesprit, beaucoup de caract^re, des taiens,
je crois le peindre k V. M. en lui disant, qu'un homme de cette trempe pent
6tre ou fort utile ou fort dangereux."

326 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BC0ND DIVISION. [CH. I.

rand and Lafayette ; the distrust of the republicans towards such
men asLameth^Beaumetz^Duport^Noailles^Narbonne^S^gur and
others^ was very strong, and there remained therefore very small
room for choice for a situation which required some practice and
a knowledge of the great world. When Dumourier received the
ministry of foreign afiairs^ the tone towards the emperor is said
to have been changed, and limits had been set to the subter-
fuges of a cabinet headed by Eaunitz by decision on the part of
the French. The chief complaint made against Delessart was,
that he remained a quiet observer of the conferences of the foreign
powers respecting French afiairs, and that he did not dare to
make known the warning and exhortatory notes which he had
received firom Elaunitz from Vienna, whilst Austria and Prussia
were concluding treaties to overrun France with a military
force.

The king of Prussia had sent Bischo£bwerder to Vienna, who
there concluded a treaty on the 7th of February 1792? the arti-
cles of which moved the indignation not only of Brissot and his
party, but of Lafayette and his friends ! They were indignant
with their own ministry, because they found no casus belH in
these articles. It was determined by the first, fourth and fifth
articles of that treaty, that Austria should raise an army of
180,000 and Prussia of 60,000 men, with a view to aid the king
of France in the recovery of his monarchical privileges and rights.
In another article it was declared, that the same powers which
had thus beforehand condemned the new French constitution
should hold a congress to which all the bitterest enemies of in-
novation should be invited, in order to determine what rights
and what constitution the French people were to be allowed
hereafter to enjoy. This treaty was not blamed as anti-revolu-
tionary, as was afterwards done by Dumourier ; Delessart and
his colleagues paid so little attention to it, that France proved
just able to maintain herself in her new relation by audacious
boldness, and even quietly submitted to an offensive political
sermon which Austria addressed to her.

The French minister had at length made complaints respect^
ing the proceedings of the two allied courts, the answer to which
had been long delayed; on the I7th of February, however,
Kaunitz caused a somewhat threatening and, at aU events, an
offensive declaration to be published, which was said to have
been dictated by Leopold himself to his chancellor, but of which it

§ IV.] OBRMANY AND FRANCE TILL 1793. 827

has been verj generallj believed that a copy was really aaDt from
Paris to Vienna. It was said that the king had consulted many
of the monarchical members of the constituent assembly^ among
whom were Bamave and Duport, and that they, in order to ter-
rify the republicans by the name of the emperor^ had reduced
their monarchical views into the form of an essay^ which was
sent by the queen to Brussels and from thence to Vienna, and
that it was then delivered by Kaunitz to the French ambassador as
the production of the emperor. We cannot decide the question^
whether this note was really the production of the camarilla of
liberal royalists in Paris or not; the paper itself however more
resembles a sermon than a diplomatic note^ and is itself a proof
that it could neither have proceeded from the emperor nor Kau-
nitz. Delessart ought by no means to have remained silent on the
receipt of a note in which prince Kaunitz took upon himself to
prescribe to the French nation what they ought to do, and what
leave undone. Dumourier informs us, in a manner indeed pe-
culiar to himself, of the way in which he contrived to force him-
self into an acquaintance with this diplomatic correspondence,
and availed himself of his knowledge to obtain possession of De«
lessart's office by means of the republicans. This report of Du-
mourier's, even in the form in which he himself presents it, is so
remarkable in connexion with the history of the event in which
he was the chief actor, that we must notice it at greater length.
Dumourier was acquainted with Delessart, Duport and other
royalists, and therefore states that when the debates in the legis-
lative assembly respecting Delessart and his constitutional col-
leagues had begun to become stormy and threatening, he re-
garded it as his duty to force himself into the confidence of De-
lessart {il force la confiance de Delessart). He further aUeges,
that on this occasion the minister showed the notes of the Au-
strian chancellor of state and the answer which Noailles had re-
turned: that he then inquired whether the whole afiair had
been made known to the committee for diplomatic afiairs ap-
pointed by the legislative assembly ; to which he replied, '' Yes !''
*• If this be really the case," said Dumourier, *'you are lost if
you do not immediately demand the restoration of the papers, lay
before the committee an energetic answer to the insolent decla-
rations of prince Elaunitz, and promise them henceforth to em-
ploy a very different tone towards the emperor." That is, in
other words, Dumourier charged the mine which was laid against

328 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH» T.

the ministry of his friend Gensonn^^ and which was afterwards
sprung by Brissot.

He even states, that he was the first to predict the overthrow
and annihilation of the monarchical friends of freedom ; but that
he afterwards also soon perceived, that in such stormy times he
should not be able for any length of time to maintain the mild,
just and honourable republicans, who had at that time received
him into their ranks. He admits too, that he was the only one
in the ministry of which he became a part who had at all ap-
proximated the most violent section of the jacobins. Degrave,
Lacoste and Duranton had never belonged to the dreadful club
in which Marat reigned and Robespierre become renowned as an
orator; Roland and Clavieres had been members of the club,
but never visited it as ministers ; whereas Dumourier, on the
very day on which he was appointed to office, appeared in the
club and mounted the tribune adorned with the dreadful red cap
which was chosen as an emblem, being that worn by the galley
slaves. Dumourier had no sooner gained admission into the
ranks of the ministry than he assumed a warUke attitude, and the
French ambassador in Vienna was directed immediately to as-
sume a harsh tone, although Dumourier assures us that he had
no intention whatever of provoking a war by the new instruc-
tions which he sent to the ambassador. He rather hoped, as
he alleges, to have been able to preserve peace, because the
agent whom count Mettemich (the father of the present ruler of
Austria) had sent to Paris negotiated in a very different tone
from that which was adopted by the cabinet of Vienna. Prince
Kaunitz at once characterized the new French ministers sb Jaco-
bins, because they refused to enter into a previous understand-
ing with him as to the subject-matter of their notes, as their
predecessors had done, refused to hold any further immediate
intercourse with them, and directed all future communications
to l?e made through the vice-chancellor of the empire, count
Johann Philipp Cobenzl. The vice-chancellor Johann Philipp
at that time played a no less important part in Austria than his
half or whole old French cousin Louis Philippe afterwards did,
who in our century concluded the peace of Luneville. Menne-
val gives us a full description of the latter, which is almost
equally characteristic of the former : he was sprung from the
same old French school and had the same principles, or rather
want of all principle ; both were trusted with the most important

§ IV.] OBRHANY AND FRANCE TILL 1792« 329

affairs of Austria during the war of the revolution ; and when we
are made acquainted with the character of these cousins^ we shall
no longer be surprised at the mischances which befell the Ger-
mans, with whose interests these half-Frenchmen were en-
trusted: for this reason we subjoin Menneval^s words in a
note*.

Dumourier states, that the republican ministry required No-
ailles to enter no further into the discussion of CobenzPs subter-
fuges, but to assume an uncompromising tone, and that on his
declaration that he could not adopt such a course, he resigned his
oiBce. Noailles, according to Dumourier, demanded permission
to retire, either because he was dishonest in his views, or was
too timid for the duties which devolved on him, which was re-
garded as so offensive by the legislative assembly, that he was
threatened with prosecution. Before however Noailles received
any notice of the decree passed by the national assembly, or
M. de Maulde, who had been named as his successor, had left
Paris, he retreated from his first bold step, and not only resumed
the business which he had renounced, because he was dissatisfied
with the commands of the new ministry, but actually took the
decisive step which he had been commanded to take. He had
now no further immediate intercourse with Kaunitz, the vice-
chancellor, in his character of director of the domestic and public
archives, had undertaken the management of foreign affairs, and
to him Noailles delivered the decisive demand prescribed to him
by Dumourier.

From the beginning of March, the reins of government had
been assumed by Francis II., and many proofs given to the
Prussian major-general, who remained in Vienna till the 5th of
April, that, as was the case with his father, he did not merely

* Menneval, in his ' Napoleon et Marie Louise/ firoaaela edit. vol. i. p. 34,
writes as follows : " M. de Talleyrand connaissait d^j^ M. de Cobenzl, ayant
^tadi6 le droit avec Ini et avec M. de Choiseul Gouffier k Strasbourg, sous le
professeur Koch;" and p. 44: "M. de Cobenzl savait par cceur nos poetes,
et principalement nos auteurs dratnatiques ; 11 r^p^tait des scenes comiques
avec une verve, qui approchait de la bouffonerie ; il organisait de petits jeux,
des charades on des tableaux en action, on il avoit tonjours un r6le, et dont les
Boeurs dtt premier consul (he is speaking of the peace of Luneville) ^taient les
premiers personnages. M. de Cobenzl parlait le fran9ais sans accent; U
n'avoit d'AUemand que le nom, Quoique louche, gros, gras et court, ses ma-
nitres ^toient ais^s et gracieuses. Sa conversation 6tait en g^n^ral superfi-
cielle et abondait en saUiies, son esprit etait plus ing^nieux que profond. II
affectait une vivacity et une ^lit^ d'humeur que trahissait souvent une pre-
occupation soudaine."

330 FIFTH PERIOD.— 8B00ND DIVISION. [CH. I.

pretend to wish to undertake the monarchical crusade, but that
he was really in earnest on the subject Notwithstanding this,
so few measures of preparation had been taken, and the pro*
verbial delays and indecision of the Austrians were carried to
such a length, that the new ruler still continued to declare, that
his army would only take the field in case of any hostile aggres-
sion on the part of France* The good Francis, immediately after
his accession to the government, showed what was to be e3q>ected
from the new government, by entrusting the administration of
affidrs to persons who had given him that description of educa-
tion, knowledge and taste which we shall describe. In the same
manner as the emperor Leopold on his accession had imme-
diately dismissed Joseph's privy council, Francis immediately
appointed the men who had been his advisers when archduke to
fill the offices of his father's councillors. This select cabinet,
which was henceforward to guide the vessel of the state through
the greatest political storms which Europe had ever experienced,
under circumstances the most difficult possible, and although
her sails were torn and her hull worm-eaten, was composed
chiefly of count Colloredo and baron von Schloisnig.

Colloredo was the dynast, who in the character of high stew-
ard had superintended the emperor's education. He was now
appointed a cabinet-minister, and baron von Schloisnig, whose
services he had previously employed in what he called education,
as his cabinet-councillor. An account of the education which
Colloredo gave to the good emperor Francis, and of the plei^
sures in which he and his second wife, the princess Maria Theresa
of Naples, spent their time, will not be at all calculated to give
any very favourable impression either of the penetration of the
new emperor, or of his talents and taste. It is said that Colloredo
entrusted the archduke to the care of baron von Schloisnig
and the ex-jesuit Diesbach, and they, in order to amuse, interest,
and spare Uie weak mind of their good-natured, but purely prac-
tical pupil, had wholly occupied his time and attention with the
construction of beautiful bird-cages, the preparation of various
descriptions of varnish, and the application of those various
productions of art to ornamenting the furniture. These la-
borious studies were interspersed with various amusements for
the relief of both pupil and teachers, in which they exercised
themselves in leaping over the tables and chairs, and in the in-
tellectual game of blindmanVbufiT, till Joseph IL^ whose apart-

§ IV.] GERMANY AND FRANCB TILL 1792. S31

ments were immediately below those occupied by the archduke
and his teachers, was obliged to forbid the noise. After such
an education as the emperor's, and that of the Neapolitan, which
was still worse, for her father was a mere rude sportsman, and
therefore the ideal and idol of the lazzaroni, the anecdotes which
were circulated concerning the amusements and pleasures of the
imperial pair not only found believers, but were admitted into
the public journals. In their family concerts, the emperor is
said to have played the wooden fiddle, which in Vienna was
called ^^ da8 holzeme Geldchter/' and his wife the bass. They
acted among themselves '^ the Begging Student ^* {BeiteUtu*
dent), and the empress is reported to have said, that this pleased
her much better than the tedious and tiresome ^^ Emilia Qalotti.''
We have merely mentioned one or two of a thousand such anec-
dotes which were in circulation, but we introduce them solely
because they are evidence of what was then, and has always
since been thought and said of the emperor. With all this, his
heart was good, his natural sense and tact in later life sound,
and his disposition admirable.

In this way, on the commencement of the new reign, the
whole management of public affiiirs fell into the hands of Collo*
redo and Schloisnig, who were at that time called in Vienna the
two emperors, and who, for the regulation of their dreadful police,
availed themselves of the services of count Franz von Saurau.
CoUoredo, who was himself a member of the old Austrian ari-
stocracy, soon discovered that it was a thing contrary to all the
traditionary usages of the house of Hapsburg, that Schloisnig,
who did not belong to the high aristocracy, should be oo-regent$
he therefore contrived to overthrow his power by means of the
empress, and from that time forward that party possessed un*-
limited dominion, both in cabinet and councils, of whom CoUo-
redo was the narrow-minded instrument. At first the empress
too, who was a daughter of the wicked and imperious Caroline
of Naples, had a seat in the council ; but the influence and cha-
racter of her mother soon furnished a pretence for excluding her
from its deliberations. When this Neapolitan princess (in 1793)
afterwards brought baron von Thugut (although he did not be-
long to the dynasts who domineered in Austria) into the place of
Kaunitz, things became very bad ; everything was venal, and
the emperor a mere cipher. Under such an administration as

FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

that of which Thogut was the head^ no one can wonder that
everything went amiss in Austria, and even shame disappeared.

This new cabinet of lovers of darkness and superstition^
who were intimately connected with the emigrants by the ties
of blood and similar views and interests, caused a circular to be
addressed to all the allies of Austria and to the estates of Ger-
many, concerning the respective pecuniary contributions and
contingents of troops which they should be expected to furnish
in case of a war; and Bischofiswerder, who had just then come
from Vienna, entered into an arrangement with prince Hohenlohe,
in Prague, to hold a conference with the duke of Brunswick in
Leipzig, and there to concert a plan of operations. Whilst war-
like preparations were carried on in Berlin with great zeal, the
cabinet of Vienna, which entertained the most contemptuous
and hostile feelings towards the plebeians then ruling in France,
sent an answer to Dumourier's demands on the 18th of March,
in a note, whose extraordinary contents may be learned from
the passage of Dumourier's ' Memoires ^ subjoined in the note.
Cobenzl indeed did all he could, by every description of diplo-
matic subterfuge, to cover the hostile contents, which might
lead to an immediate declaration of war, because he well knew
how much time must yet elapse before Austria could seriously
think of actual hostilities ; Dumourier however played him a
trick: on the 27th of March, the French minister received in-
structions from Paris to ask the vice-chancellor whether the
Austrian cabinet continued to adhere to the declaration of the
18M? Cobenzl replied with offensive brevity, war was therefore
unavoidable, and Dumourier, as early as the 20th of April, pro-
posed to the legislative assembly to issue a declaration of war*.
This proposal was received with loud rejoicings, and on the very
same day, at eleven o'clock in the evening, the resolution was

* *' Cette r^ponse ^toit une note de M. de Cobenzl. Elle ^toit sdche, couite,
dare ; elle imposait des conditions a la nation Franyaise. Ainsi en cas que cette
nation ne piit ou ne vouKit pas accepter ces conditions, cette note ^it une
vraie declaration de guerre ; et c'est en quoi le minist^re de Vienne est inexcu-
sable, si cette cour, comme elle I'a dit depuis, voulait conserver la paix et
roaintenir son alliance. Ces conditions ^toient : le r^tablissement de la mo-
narchie sur les bases de la stance royale du 23 Juin 17^9, par consequent le
r^tablissement de la noblesse et du clerg^ comme ordre. La restitution des biens
du clerge, celles des terres de TAlsace aux princes Allemands, avec tous leurs
droits de souverainet^ et de f&odalit^, et la restitution au pape d' Avignon et du
com tat Venaissin.'*

§ IV.] GERMANY AND PRANCE TILL 1792. 333

passed that the king should declare war. The decree was im-
mediately drawn up^ brought to the king, and confirmed by him
on the following day*.

Whilst Austria, Prussia, and particularly the tedious and un-
wieldy empire continued to treat, write, and discuss among
themselves, and to send their emissaries and diplomatists on
journeys in all directions, at great cost, to settle matters which
might have been arranged in two words, and to make prepara*
tions for a war, of whose issue they entertained no doubt, the
French democrats immediately set the whole of their lively and
warlike nation in a state of movement. Their object was, in the
midst of the coming storm, to rid themselves of king and mo-
narchy, of all the adherents to the old order of things, and with
them of all half-measures, and for the moment to direct the whole
power of the masses, neither separated by rank, condition nor
property, against all the enemies of the revolution, both foreign
and domestic. The foreign enemies gave time enough to prepare
and digest their measures to those energetic men, who in the midst
of this firightful anarchy wished to create a new system, and out of
confusion to bring a kind of order. As soon as France came to
a rupture with Austria, Prussia it is true immediately declared
that she was ready to act in concurrence with the emperor, and
would send an army of 50,000 men to the Rhine ; this army
however was long delayed, and advanced by very slow marches.
As early as the 4th of May, the empire was also summoned by
the newly-elected emperor Francis, and at the same time by the
king of Prussia, to send the contingents of the respective states
to join an army which was destined to defend the injured rights
of the German princes and nobles against the French; as yet
however no imperial war was declared, and a long time elapsed
before it was actually declared, and even then the electors of
Saxony and Hanover insisted on remaining neutral.

The supreme command of the allied Austrian and Prussian
army destined against Paris was to be conferred on the duke of
Brunswick, but as the king wished to take part in the campaign
and to take with him the thoughtless Louis Ferdinand, it was
seen beforehand, that such a perfect courtier as the duke would

* All the docaments referring to this point, among which are Dumourier's
analysis of Kaunitz's note, and Condorcet's explanation of the grounds on
which the war was declared, will be found in the 'Pikes Officielles/ which are
appended to the latest edition of Dumoarier's Life and Memoirs as iclaircis$e'
mcHB hidt&riques. See vol. ii. Lettre F. p. 427> &c.

334 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BCOND DIVISION. [CH. !•

soon be redaoed to the greatest state of perplexity. The army
should have made a rapid advance in order to take advantage of
the disorders in France^ the relaxation of military discipUne and
disbanding of the regular army^ the emigration of the old com-
manders and the inexperience of the new; instead of which, the
helpless king and the good-natured newly-chosen emperor con-
tinued to delay and to hold secret councils and long conferences,
the one in Berlin and the other in Vienna. The consultations
in Vienna led to the determination to send the divisions of the
army serving in Hungary and Croatia, and amounting to 45,000
men, to the Rhine; but no means of expedition were either
devised or put into execution. In the secret state-council in
Berlin, it was agreed upon between the duke of Brunswick,
prince Hohenlohe, major-general von Bichofiswerder, and Von
Schulenberg, minister of state, that the Prussian army also
should appear on the Rhine towards the middle of May.

Prussia has always been remarkable for a superabundance of
theoretical wisdom, and for that reason proved too often deficient
in sound, practical understanding, and in tact, to profit by the
events of the moment. Such was the case on this occasion ; the
duke of Brunswick was so thoroughly imbued with the principles
of the seven years' war, that he approved of nothing which was
not perfectly methodical; and it was not till after long discus-
sions that any agreement could be arrived at, as to the point
towards which the main army should be directed. Numerous
journeys were undertaken and consultations held on this plan
and on that, but no result efiected.

The king himself drew up one plan of attack, the duke of
Brunswick a second, and the marquis de Bouille, as representa-
tive of the princes and emigrants, suggested a third. All of them
however proceeded on the principle, that the Prussian merce-
naries and noble officers who had become gray in a service di-
stinguished for its love of spatterdashes and drill had only to
show themselves in order to put the whole French nation to
flighty as they and the duke of Brunswick had four years before
scattered the Dutch cheesemongers, who called themselves
patriots*. The king and the duke of Brunswick renewed their

* Bischoffswerder said to the officers of the general staff in Magdeburg,
" Do not buy too many horses, the affair will not last long. The steam of
freedom will soon cool down in Paris, the army of lawyers will be half de-
stroyed in Belgium, and towards autumn we shall return home." Tlia duke
of Brunswick also said to the assembled officers, " Gentlemen, not too much
baggage or eziiense; the whole affair is only a military promenade."

§ IV.] OXKUANT AND FBANOB TILL 1792. 335

consultations in Magdeburg, without having come to any result
even when the army was assembled and ready to march, and the
king salt for the marquis de Bouill^ because they could not
agree. The marquis maintained that Paris was most accessible
throughChampagne^and that the march must be directed through
Longwy upon S&lan and Verdun because these fortresses were
both in a bad condition, and then the road from Verdun to Paris
through Rhetel was quite open* The king approved of this plan,
whereas the duke thought it directly opposed to all the prin-
ciples of methodical strat^y ; but, like a true courtier, he acqui-
esced in the opinion of the king without giving up his strategical
experience. The duke therefore followed one part of the plan,
but he could never bring himself to resolve to give way to un-
systematic rapidity. He always returned to the sbw regularity
of the seven years' war, and in the end neither followed the old
nor the new system.

The emigrants received money for military preparations; the
more powerful princes of the empire, particularly those of
Hanover, Saxony, Hdstein, and Swedish Pomerania, declared
that war had only been declared by Austria, and that that did not
concern the empire ; it was found necessary therefore, as usual,
to win over one circle after another to the common cause, and
then each imperial prince, count, baron, abbot, and city, did as
little as possible. William IX. of Hesse-Cassel stood in too near
a relation to Prussia to enable him to withdraw from taking a
share in the war, notwiUistanding his remarkable avarice, but
he exercised great hard-heartedness towards the emigrants, and
in the following year admirably availed himself of the circum-
stances, according to the good old custom, to farm out his people
to the English. The circle of the Rhine afterwards took the
lead, and gave a good example to the others, and the circle of
Bavaria followed; for Charles Theodore and his nobility were
immediately inspired with zeal, when it was proposed to take the
field in the cause of priests and nobles, and they had also a di-
stant view to English subsidies. Mannheim was placed in a state
of defence ; it cost the Austrian minister. Von Lebrbach, very great
trouble to stimulate the other circles to action and induce them
to arm their contingents. The circle of Swabia in particular,
which was tall of imperial barons, small abbots, imperial cities,
princes and counts, was very difficult to win over to the cause.
No steps wa« moreover tak^i in the first instance but those of

336 FIFTH PERIOD* — SECOND DIVISION. [CH« I.

preparation ; for the empire was anxious to confine its operations
to a purely defensive system^ and even that was not carried into
effect. There was indeed no lack of consultations, for before the
Prussians and Austrians marched to the Rhine, the coronation
of the emperor was to be solemnized on the 5th of June, and
new conferences to be holden, and then the king of Prussia and
the emperor were to meet in person at Mayeuce. The com-
mencement of the war therefore was delayed from the beginning
of May till the middle of July*.

Whilst the powers were engaged in consultations respecting
the intended campaign, and Germany for the last time was occu-
pied with the ridiculous comedy of an imperial coronation, half
descended from the usages of the middle ages and half composed
of modem ostentation and ceremonies, in which princes, bishops,
and imperial nobles played the chief parts, the French people
felt the electric shock of patriotism throughout its whole system,
and was excited to frantic passion against eyerything old, by
means of popular assemblies, clubs, corporations, newspapers,
and pamphlets of all descriptions. The second assembly of the
estates, which was so hostile to the king, nobility and priests,
made laws of a merely republican nature ; and however stormy,
and sometimes ridiculous, the full meetings of this assembly
were, like those of the constituent assembly by which it was
preceded, and of the convention by which it was followed, yet it
contained a great number of very intelligent and practical men
in its committees. The journals of Marat and Fr^ron, and Ca-
mille Desmoulins^ pamphlets, daily contributed to the destruc-
tion of the enemies of the people. Those who were not ready
to make sacrifices to the popular frenzy, were at least obliged to
concur in the most violent propositions made in the public sit-
tings of the assembly, even against their own convictions ; and
the ancient nobility and the priests were harassed and persecuted
by intolerant and cruel laws.

As early as the 30th of March, two deputies (Quinette and
Bazire), who afterwards played such conspicuous parts during
the reign of terror, moved and carried a resolution, that all the
estates of the emigrants, which had been confiscated since the
7th of February, together with the whole amount of their
incomes, should be applied to the necessities of the state ; and

* On the lOth of July the king took his departure for Berlio, and on the
11th the emperor made lus solemn coronation entrance into Frankfort.

§ IV.] GERMANY AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 33?

two days afterwards^ before this decree was confirmed by the king,
all the secular and ecclesiastical congrigations were abolished^
and every description of religious costume strictly forbidden.
The paper named assignats, was ordered to be received as legal
payment in the purchase of estates^ and fixed at its nominal
value ; and although as early as the 24th of April it had fallen
to one-third, the legislative assembly passed a decree on the
30th of April, sanctioning the further issue of 19,000,000 of
livres in assignats, in order to secure the interest and co-
operation of the innumerable speculators in public securities
and property in this dangerous crisis of affidrs. At the same
time as the attempt was in progress to bring the possessions
of the ancient holders of the state domains and ecclesiastical
estates into the hands of another class by means of assignats,
the old forms of law, administration of justice and morality were
all for a time suspended. It is impossible to explain on any
other supposition the laxity of the legislative assembly in failing
to bring to just and condign punishment the perpetrators of the
inhuman murders which had taken place in Avignon, where one
party wished to maintain, and the other to root out, the old re-
ligion and government. The majority of the deputies were not
indeed initiated into the mysteries of that secret policy by which
the leaders of the movement were influenced, and by which
France has received a new form, which renders all hope of the
possible restoration of the old impossible : this majority therefore
became terrified. This appeared when the odious and fi-antic
Marat so excited the assembly in the beginning of May by his in-
cessant and virulent attacks upon every fiiend of peace and order,
that they impeached him as a criminal. He however found
means of preventing the prosecution, by the instrumentality of
persons of distinction and influence, who proved his fiiends on
this occasion. By the principles of legislation on which men
acted, all traditionary ideas of virtue and social honour were
completely changed, because mere brute force and the perpetra-
tion of crime were employed as the instruments for founding a
new order of things. It was announced in all the numerous
journals, assemblies of the people, of clubs and magistrates, that
in the time of a revolution, and in respect to the destiny of
Aiture generations, crimes and transgressions, as well as honoiurs
and merit, virtue and shame, will and must exist.
With a view of spreading terror, therefore, and of replacing the

VOL. VI. z

S38 FIFTH rSRIODt^mOONJ) PIVISION* [OB. U

ecclesiastical; royal and other exhibitions by prooesiions of a dif*
ferent class, which would prove more acceptable to the rude seme
of that portion of the people to which sovereignty was promised,
and for a time apparently given, the absurd and offensive scenes
enacted by Cloots and Marat and such men were temporarily
endured. For this reason* the olamorars of the faubourgs were
allowed to appear before the bar of the assembly, to fill the hall
with the very refuse of the Parisian mob, assigned the honours
of a sitting in the assembly, saluted with the kiss of brother*
hood, and the red cap, worn by the most degraded class of con**
victs, adopted as the honourable distinction of the Jacobin alli-
ance for the promotion of liberty and democracy. The names of
the deputies who were the proposers and influential advisers of
the most violent measures adopted by the legislative assembly!
furnish of themselves conclusive proofs, that all that which was so
madly and criminally resolved and perpetrated in the year 1799
was no result of accident, but of the concerted meaaurcs of those
energetic men, who in the following year raised a new edifice from
the ruins of the dilapidated state, and upon the dead bodies of its
friends and admirers* Bazice was the proposer and advocate of
the law against the priests ; Marat escaped the hands of justice
through Danton's influence; and GoUot d'Herbois not only threw
his shield over the murderers of Avignon, but ho proclaimed
impunity for their crimes to all those who should assail the
monarchy, when he caused the Swiss of the regiment Cbftteau-
vieux, who had been condemned to the galleys, to be led about in
triumph. Collot succeeded on political grounds in obtaining the
liberation of eighty>.seven men, who on the command of Jour-
dan Coupe^tSte had committed the horrible massacre vf Avignon,
and overthrew the sentence which had been pronounced upon
the Swiss by their own national tribunals. In the case of the
Swiss soldiers, who in the previous year had robbed the military
chest of their regiment in Lorraine, and committed murder snd
other crimes, they were not satisfied with procuring the reversal
of the judgement, and threatening the judges with vengeanQe»but
the weak king and the Swiss who had pronounced the sentence
were accused as participators in the offence. This in fact amounted
to a declaration, that the red cap of these condemned criminals
was now to be regarded as the symbol of the new age, and that
every crime committed against the old order of things was Justin
fiable and right. On CoUot's proposali the aseembly first passed

§ IV.] QBBMANY AND FKANOB TILL 1702. 330

an aot of amnesty^ and tbea not only compelled the king to give
b4B ASient^ but the very Swiss, who had pronounced the sentence
of condemnation, to acknowl^ge the an^n^^ty. At a later period
th^sQ notoriouft criminals wer« conducted through France in tri-
umphj and treated in P^is a» martyrs in the cause of freedom*.
Th9 entbusiAsm for freedom operated at that time, as it ap-
pears, in the same manner as the enthusiasm for superstition and
fanatical zeal worked in the time of the crusade« and again works
in our own diQrs, or like the devotedness and sacrifices which were
shown and made in the seventh century in the camie of the
prophet of Mecca. The conduct of Gregoire, the constitutional
bishop of Blois, whom the writer of this history so intimately
knew and closely observed, that be can entertain no doubt of bis
piety, iiimplioity of purpose and integrity, must also be explained
from the influence of this intoxication and the force of public
opinion. This peaceful and kindly bishop at that time delivered
an address at the grave of the murdered 8imoneau, mayor of
Etampes, irom which we sulgoin a passage in a note, in order to

* These no doubt were the views of Marie Joseph Ch^aier, who in com-
pany with the notorious Tli^roigne de Mericourt, David and Hion, addressed
the msgistratest and propoped that a crown of honour should be placed
on the heads of the coqvicts instead of a galley -siave's cap. His brother
Andr^ Ch^nier on the contrary expressed himself very warmly in the ' Journal
de Paris' against this disgraceful and scandalous affair. Danton, Potion and
Mi^uel^ the last two undoubtedly men of education, were certainly of the same
opinion. The workmen of the faubourgs of St, Antoioe and St. Marceau
were only tools in this afiUr. The signal was given by the jacobin club in
Brestj whiAev these gfj^iley? slaves had beea sent. They were first led ahopt
that ?ity ip triumph as martyrs for freedom ; then a deputation froip the
clubs in Paris appeared in ordier to accompany them on their journey to the
capital. They were received with marks of public honour in all the cities on
their vs^Y from Brest to Pane* and on the petition of the men and womeni
who have been regarded as the people of the faubourgs, the corporation of
Fans consented to give these convicts a solemn public reeeption in the c^tal.
Tjie grand councils which wse the^ fuming st the destruction of the king ^nd the
constitutiouj by f^ renews^ of scepes of tumult ftnd violence, (irst wished to
be present in corpore at the public entrv of the galley-slaves into the city.
Potion, the mayor, Manuel, fraeurmrde ta eomwuiie, and hie deputy* Danton,
and Panie and S^rf^ntj, the two jacobina then in the admiaistrstion of the
police, cQuld not however carry out thi3 plan, because the respectable part of
the citizens were ashamed of the proeeeding. The administration of the de-
partment tried in vain to prevent the whole ceremony. On the 9th of April
the Swiss appeared, adorned with crowns of honour, before the national as-
aemhlyj were invited to the honours uf a sitting, and on the nei(t day conducted
in trinmph through Pi^rie* The jacobin clnh surrounded the triumphal ear,
which WAS (]rawn by magnifipent hors^, and took its station on the Plac^ d^
h Sf»9tiU^ s CoUot d'Herbois tftt in the midst of the triumphing conncta, and
their red PSPi the badge of iUvery« hec^sme ^e symbol of honour among the
all-powerful clubs of Paris.

z2

340 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

prove that even lambs^ when filled with inspiring hopes of golden
times^ were changed into tigers, and that a truly pious ecclesiastic
could be brought to raye like Marat*.

From the wild and impetuous rage against nobility, monarchy,
courts, and papistical priestcraft which then prevailed, must also
be drawn an explanation of the fact, that men like Manuel, Po-
tion, Brissot and Condorcet went hand in hand for some time
with Danton and his companions, and projected the plan of de-
stroying the king, the monarchy, and all the adherents of the
monarchical constitution, who were not to be reached in other
and more legal ways, by a tumultuary rising of the people. This
plan was to be first brought into operation on the festive tri-
umphal procession in honour of the Swiss of Cb&teauvieux, and
the people were then clamorously to demand that the busts of
the authors of the monarchical constitution, of Lafayette and
Bailly, should be removed firom the council-chamber of the
Hotel de Ville. This was to be the signal for a general storm
against king and monarchy, and therefore Collot d^Herbois used
all his arts to whet and stimulate the passions of the blind mul-
titude, whom he had headed in the procession in honour of tiie
convicts ; he ui^ed them repeatedly to press their demands upon
the municipal council, and persuaded them to have recourse to
threats if their demand was not complied with and the busts
removed. The firlends of the constitution however were still too
powerful for the republicans, both in the great and the small
council, as well as in the national guard ; and the enemies of
public order perceived that the influence of the distinguished
citizens of Paris upon the lower classes was far too great to
suffer them to employ the people unconditionally as their tools.
They therefore resolved to bring the very ofiiscourings of the
south of France and the Levant from MarseiUes and the sea-
port towns to Paris. This was effected by means of the immense
power which the jacobin club had now obtained in the south,
and facilitated by the cannibal rage with which the opposite and
fanatical adherents of superstition and infidelity rushed to the
strife.

* ** Autrefois on faisait Tdloge d'un faineant titr6, d'nn brigand conronn^^
aujonrdliui c'est la guerre de la liberty, de I'^gaiit^ contre les privil^gi^, et c'est
avec raison qu'on a cri6, ' La guerre aux tyrans, la paix aux nations : il s'agit de
broyer ces monstres, il faut que le sceptre des despotes soit bris^ sur leur t§te.
Oh ! avec quelle joie je porterais ma t6te sur le billot^ si k c6t6 devait tomber
celle du dernier tyran.' '^

§ IV.] QERMANY AND PRANCB TILL 1792. 341

For some time the Swiss regiment^ Ernst, had shown a fa-
vourable disposition towards the royalists and the adherents of
the old forms, but it had at length been obliged to leave the
country. This was followed by a long and obstinate contest
between the favourers of the old and the friends of the new
system, till at length the latter gained a complete triumph.
Central and filial clubs were formed in all directions by the vie*
torious party ; and all the public authorities were obliged to suc-
cumb to the opinion of the club-leaders. Marseilles, Aix, Tou-
louse and Aries became the theatres of daily violations of law and
order, and long before the constituted authorities had lost their
legitimate influence in other departments, the sovereign people
reigned supreme in these cities. The rabble, led by a number
of more powerful demagogues, had obtained complete dominion
in the cities which have been named, were in the habit of pub-
licly abusing the king, threatened to hurl him from his throne,
and despatched message after message to Paris to urge on the
abolition of monarchy. The messages were admirably turned to
the promotion of their views by the deputies from the south,
who being generally rich merchants or celebrated advocates, exer-
cised great influence over their Uberal countrymen, and formed
a staple article with the dreaded and dreadfld journalists, such
as Brissot, Oorsas, Carra, and Tallien in his placards {Journal
qffiche).

The rude power of the masses was to be employed for the
visionary republic, by virtue of the clever theories of the zealots,
precisely as military power had for a century and a half been
employed in favour of absolute monarchy. Before however it
was possible to overthrow all existing institutions, protected by
their splendour, by hereditary prejudices, and a species of holy
fear, monarchy and religion must be first trampled in the dust,
and that appearance of sanctity which surrounds both com-
pletely annihilated. A systematic course was pursued for the
accomplishment of this end, and firom the system secretly fol-
lowed by those who guided the current of events, it must be
declared, that the most refined, intelligent and best-educated
men, who abhorred Hebert and Marat, nevertheless cherished
and promoted their plans. At the meetings of their clubs, these
men suggested and called into life all the dreadful scenes which
were enacted in the capital, the palace and the national assem-
bly,— scenes revolting to every good and honourable feeling. We

d4i vtnu i»ftftioD.^0BcOND i)tvifeioK. [pn. u

look upon All this thel^fote ffleifefy 9A mell&s fbf k mym&iiJkry
object^ mA pass ovei* thd detftils»

The fii^t storm raised by those who Wished to break down the
supports of the tnonarehjr piede by piece fell upon the tletgy
and the king's guardsi As to the ol^gy, it had bfeen early pro*
posed that the administJratoi^ of a department should be at liberty
summarily to ejeat any of the clergy fi*om the department who
might be accused by sevetal citizens of originating distutbances>
without summoning them befbre any court» The kink had i^flised
his sanction to this deCfee ; but now at the end Of Mkf^ When
the monarchy itself was to be oveiiihrown and the king foix;ed to
sutgection^ the enemies Of king and priest returned to the chargei
The same decree could not be laid before the king a second time ;
the ptt)pOsal thei^fore Was couched in a new form and was still
more sevei'e than befoi^^ because the king was to be constrained
to action. Now it ran^ that any twenty citizens of a depai'tment
shall be entitled to require the administrators Of the same to
effect the banishment of any clergyman ; and when these have
sanctioned their demand^ then such clergyman shall be eicpelled
the kingdom ; and if he does not leave the country^ be liable to
ten years' Imprisonment. This measure at first appealed too
cruel and severe to many republican members of the national
assembly^^^to all those who were not admitted into the secret
aim of these proceedings ; Henry Lariviere therefore i^filted
them by a makim drawn from the democratic oracle of that time.
With Rousseau's ttmtrdt sodat in his hand, he proved that the
author laid it down as a pHnctple, that the catholic chutt^h, the
fbundation of which is intolerance, can never sanction religious
l^edom; and that therefore nothing remained etcept to deport
the refractory priests, tt was easy to be foreseen, that the king
wotdd be still further from approving of this decree than the
former ; and the mett of the movement Only wished for an op»
portunity of Working Upon the mass of the people, who had
become as fimatical against priests and worship as they are now
i&natlcal in their favour, and of turning the violence upon the
king. The same was precisely the case with the clamour against
the royal guard.

We have already stated that the Courtiers, who universally in^
jured the king by their servile offlciousness, when they pretended
to do him service, drove out all the Sons of the respectable
citizens who might be relied on from the ranks of the guards^

§ IVO MlillAKY AND VRANOa TILL 1792. 848

und ihiteftd of the legal ttumbei* of 1200 men recruited eome
4S00> or^ itt Dumourier maintains^ 6000 erords for the dame
service. We learn from the aged Lacretelle how imprudently
the royalists acted in the organization of this guard and the se-
lection of its officers^ when he informs us^ in his garrulous com^
mendations of the duke de la Rochefoucault> how he and the
other monarchical liberals thought they were acting when they
collected as many nobles and then of the old school as possible
around the king. It is only tidCessary to read the names re^
corded by the good old man td be persuaded^ that the very pre*
sence of these people was quite enough to stunulate the fanatical
populace to continually-renewed- storms against the royal palace.
This in fkct really occurred, and ^ith precisely the greater vio^
lence and frequency, as the guard, together with the Swiss, ap^
peared superior to many thousands of an undisciplined mob.
The guard therefore to which, by the constitution, the king was
entitled, were contemptuously designated as a band of refrac-
tory priests or emigrants sent from Coblens; and unhappily,
according to Lacretelle, the description was not altogether un-
founded*.

The persons who were the agitators and leaders in all these
things were eagerly desirous of exciting disturbances within the
palace itself, and the orators of the clubs did all in their power
to sow dissensions between the royal and the national guards;
when this fidled of success, means were taken to provoke indi-
vidual members of the corps. They no sooner appeared in the
gardens of the Tuileries than they were scoffed and jeered at,
and some were even compelled to draw their swords in self-
defence, which was then charged upon them as a crime in all the
newspapers of the day. It was said they longed to murder the
people, and that these bands of anti-revolutionary cut-throats
must be scattered if the cause of freedom was to be maintained.
In order to hasten the execution of their plans. Potion the mayor
was obliged to put in circulation the report of a new flight medi-
tated by the king, and two of the men who founded the reign of

* The passage here alluded to will be found in the ' Dix Annies d'Epreuves
pendant la R^olution^' par M. Ch. Lacretelle. Paris et Leipsic. Jules
Renouard, p. 70. ** La garde que la constitution avait accord^ assez mesquine-
ment au rol comptait non seuletnent des sujets fiddles, mais des hhn^ dans son
seiu) puisque les Lescttrc^ les Larochejaquelin, les d'ElMe, et beaucoup d'autres
illustres gaerriers de la Vendue en faisaient partie^ et que ie loyal et yaleureux
BriBsac en itxAi le chef.'^

344 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVIBION. [CH. I.

blood in the following year, by the same means of terror which
they subsequently pursued, constrained the legislative assembly
to adopt a tumultuary resolution.

Chabot and Bazire played the leading characters in the com-
mittee of public safety, to which the national assembly had en-
trusted the administration of what was called the high police ;
these men, in order to be able to point to a conspiracy, induced
two of the guards to make some communications respecting pre-
tended attempts at corruption on the part of the royalists or
constitutionalists ; but having no success in this plan, they sud-
denly came forth with the news of a great conspiracy. The
king, they announced with horror, intended to make use of the
guards to facilitate his flight; the danger was imminent; and
there was no other means of safety than in the appointment of
two additional committees, who should unite with the committee
of general safety, consult what was best to be done in this emer-
genc}*, and finally report to a plenary sitting of the assembly^
that the coimtry was in danger. This produced the effect. On
the 28th of May, Chabot and Bazire made their report in the
three committees, and on the 29th all Paris was in motion;
the friends of the existing constitution became objects of public
suspicion and were closely watched by the people's pohce. On
this occasion the first attempt was made to shake the foun-
dations of the constitution by a general republican impulse,
which was given by the national assembly. On the motion of
•Camot, the sittings of the assembly were declared permanent;
and also aU the executive magistrates of the country, the coun-
cillors of the departments, districts and communes, were to re-
main constantly assembled, under pretence of being ready at any
moment to adopt the necessary measures, but in reality to keep
the people in a state of terror and to provoke a rebellion. This
resolution was no sooner adopted than Bazire proposed to dis-
band the royal guard and to re-organize it on a different footing.
This was also decreed, because they wished to conceal the desire
of depriving the king of his constitutional protection; but no
one ever thought of executing the decree and restoring the
guard.

At this time the whole of the ministry, with the exception of
Dumourier, favoured the revolutionary measures which were
adopted against the king and monarchy, and were anxious to
call an army, or rather a promiscuous mob, from the south of

§ IV.] GBBMANY AND FBANCB TILL 1792. 345

France to Paris. The marquiB de Grrave had now become
minister of war^ when Narbonne was no longer able to retain
the office ; he was rather a young man, and had been as frequent
as Narbonne in his visits to the saloons of madame de Stael^
where the doctrinaire politics of the originators of the imtenable
constitution were habitually discussed. He was in the confidence
of Dumourier and acceptable to the king^ but by no means equal
to the difficult and responsible duties which devolved on him.
After the lapse of two months he therefore resigned his office^
and recommended to the king as his successor colonel Servan^
who had been his chief assistant during the period of his ad-
ministration of the war department. Servan was a man of noble
family from Dauphin^^ to whom Dumourier had no liking*^
although he was intimately connected with madame Roland.
This political intimacy furnished Dumourier with an opportunity
of calumniating both, in a manner quite worthy of himself, his
character and habits {iljouait aupris d^elle le rSle d^un amant).
Roland was connected with Servan on political grounds alone,
and in consequence of her fiery zeal in favour of republican
theories and institutions. Servan, being a native of Dauphin^,
had a very large circle of acquaintances, not only in his native
province but throughout the whole south of France, and this
suggested to him the idea of sending for a large number of vio-
lent republicans to Paris, under the pretence of making prepara-
tions for the war. Dumourier, who lost no opportunity of ma-
ligning Servan, says that the king, who was better acquainted
with the man than he was, could not endure him ; yet he had
had the weakness not to resist his appointment to the war de-
partment, which he would never have sanctioned had the king
given expression to his feelings.

The rage for freedom was greatest amongst the inhabitants of
the south of France, who committed lamentable crimes under
the sanction of this sacred name. Servants idea of calling in the
aid of these fanatics was closely connected with the foolish con-
duct of the count d'Artois, who had fled to Turin, and who,
before he went to Coblenz, made various attempts to rouse into
action the nobility of Provence and Toulouse. The count and
his brother, both the king's brothers, were married to Sardinian

• Dumourier says, " II ayait I'ext^rieur d'un homme froid, r^fl^chi et
austere ; il ^tait cependant doux et flatteur, mais son enveloppe simple et phi-
losophique couvrait beaucoup d'ambition et d'insensibilit^."

MS Ftrr^ MtttODi-^MOOND OlVtItOKi [Ott« f*

pritteenAes, imd the prinois of Pi^mont to their sister ; the whole
Siit^tikti territdxy thef efoi« swftrmed with emigrftntis^ i!trh03 ftom
Piedmont^ Sftvoy and Nioei were industrious in sowing dissen-
sions throughout the south of Vrtuice. Their eonduet was so
light-minded and oflbnsiye; that even there they exoited wesri*-
ness And disgust; but when the eount d'Artois had retired ttom
ttAly^ SArdiniA still iremained inimical to the new constitution^ And
WAS ah*eady engsged in eontinual disputes with the new govern-
ment I Dumourier was therefore at last obliged to come to an open
rupture. The national assembly was At thAt time deluged with
petitions from Provence And DAUphin^^ urging it to Aotion^ be**
CAuse the insolent nobility of these provinces found a reftige and
protection in SerdiniAi the consequence was, that Dumourier
assumed as bold a tone of defianee towArds Ssrdinia as he hAd
done towArds AustriAi and demanded a cAtegoticel Answer to
five decisive questions which he Addressed to the SArdiniAn go-
vernment!

The CAbinet of Turin returned merely a diplomatic^ evasive^
and reserved answer^ and the marquis de S^monville was ap-
pointed to proceed to Turin in order to insist upon a decisive
reply* The marquis had hitherto been ehargi iPaffirires In
GenoA5 And whilst there had kept up an understanding with the
very numerous malcontents in the Sardinian states; the king of
SardiniA therefore caused him to be detained at Alessandria on
hiA joumeyi On the 8eth of Aprils Dumourier made A very
strong report to the national assembly respecting the course
Adopted on this occasion by the Sardinian government^ without
however proposing to make a declaration of war. Out of respect
to the feelings of the kingi and in consideration of the close
family alliances between the two countriesi Dumourier satisfied
himself with breaking off ell politicAl relAtions with Sardinia^
recalling B^monville fh)m Alessandria5 end sending him as am-
bAssAdor to ConstAntinople« This condition^ which was neither
one of peACe nor WAr^ continued till the AustriAns And PrussiAns
hAd pushed forward their troops into Frsnce^ and then for the
first time the king of Sardinia declared> on the 26th of July, thAt
he WAS resolved to join the Allied powers against FrAnce«

At the time when Servan undertook the conduct of the wat
department^ France was therefore threatened from without and
torn by dissensions within ; the general opinion was, that the
centre of all this treadiery was in the Tuitories^ that those who

§ lyO GiUMANY ANO yilAN6iA VtLL 179B. j47

liutfounded thd motiitfeh wei*6 in eloM And eoAstetit eoiteipOAd-
etiee with the tfmy of fbt^ignem and emigrants ftdvancing agalugt
Faris> lind that the cotintty eoiild only be saved bjr fetottning
the Ttlileries. The people^ it was said^ must destroy Attd tt>ot
out their enemies, not even exoepting the king, should he be
fbund amongst theif number^ In otder to render the eiteeu*
tion of these views possible, the royftl guards had been dlft-
banded, but the national guiU*d was still an objeet of ftar $ and
in order to detet and overawe them, some thousnud flmatios and
eriminals, on Bervan's proposal, were to be brought from the
south of France to P&ris, uuder the pretence of taking advantage
of the flit of the 14th of July fbr the deftnce of the nation.
The pretence therefore was to bring together in Paris A hifge
eorps of voluuteers, who might afterwards be sent into the field ;
the true design however escaped no one's attention^ Dumou»
rier states that Bervan, because his views Were obvious, neither
communieated his proposal to the king uor to the cnUnet, but
arranged the Afikhf among his friends the republicans, and then
communicated the matter by letter to the president of the na**
tional assembly^. The proposal ran fts follows s-'^ That on the
ensuing J\xljffte, five men equipped and armed should be sent
from each canton of the whole kingdom to Paris, which body
should afterwards be formed hito an army and seut hito the
field/^ Every oue was well Aware that these five meu would be
everywhere selected by the clubs, corporations, and leading de^
magogues,— by the bitterest enemies of the monarchy ; and there^
fore that this body of 30,000 men would coustitute a republican
army against monarchy, and form a couuterbalauee to that poi^
tion of the national guard who were attached to the constitutiou.

* The manner in wki^h BerVsn'i proposal was rteeived by the idialittoj who
were carried away by their enthusiasm^ will be best seen from reading Bnzot
and tnadame !tolAnd, who were tfefiotisljr captivated with die prlndpien and
theories of Rousseau. The manner in which the thing was rtprsseAtSd to the
Parisians may be seen in the second part of Barr^re's ' M^moires^' who states
the matter as if he himself believed li. And the aged Lacretelle makes us
My Iktquidnted With the Views of the constitutionalists afid their admired
Latt)ch^ottcault| who was then at the head of the administratioB of the de«
partment. Dumourie^, full of resentment against the Giroode, saySf — " Ser-
vant homme tr^s-hoif et trds ennetni dtt rol, Imngina, sans cohsulter Ses eol-
ligiieB* sana pr^nir ai le conseil ni le mi d'^criia aa president de rassstnbl^
nationale pour lui proposer un decret, afin de rassembler autour de Paris un
camp de vingt mille nommes, de prendre pour cela I'^poque de ta fM^ration da
14 Juillet et d'en fhire uae aftn^centrale permanente. Sous le t>r6te]tte Sp^eux
de maintenir la tranquillity dans Paris et d'astare^ let traVaox dt rstSembMl
nationale,''

348 FIFTH PEBIOD.--SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

That this was really the plan may be clearly proved from
documents printed at the time of the restoration^ in the ^ Me-
moirs of Barbaroux/ who was remarkable for his beauty and his
republican fanaticism. This friend of Roland^ who inspired
Charlotte Corday with enthusiasm and was beloved by her, not
only says that he had ordered up his Marseillese, as they were
called, with this view, but what he says was fully confirmed by
the manner in which this July army was chosen. The king and
the queen were therefore quite right in opposing the assembling
of such an army, but the queen should not have been so im-
prudent as to denounce them as an army of vagabonds, which,
according to the last edition of ' Dumourier's Memoirs,' she is
said to have done. The object of the proposal by no means
escaped the attention of those members of the assembly who
were of monarchical principles, and therefore, on the 8th of
June, they offered the most vehement opposition to Servan's
proposition, and the republicans in consequence had recourse to
perfidy. They waited till the night was far advanced and most of
the members had departed, when they put the proposal to a
vote, carried the question, and obtained the decree which Servan
recommended and desired. The king refused to confirm the
decree, and appealed to the general disapprobation with which
it had been received ; for as early as the 10th the king had been
solicited, in a representation subscribed by 8000 citizens, to re-
fuse his assent. In order on this occasion to be able to have
some apparently good reasons for decrying the king's exercise of
his constitutional rights, the decree concerning the banishment
or imprisonment of refi*actory priests was submitted to him at
the same time, to which it was previously well known he would
not assent. He was in fact dilatory, and madame Roland and
that portion of the ministers who still held their consultations
in her saloons, hit upon the unlucky idea of treating the king
like a schoolboy.

Dumourier could not be persuaded to discuss any of the affairs
of state in the presence of madame Roland, with whom he had
completely broken, in consequence of the reproaches made by
some of his colleagues at her suggestion, because, according to
the usages of olden times, he wished to pay his mistresses out of
the public treasury. Lacoste and Duranton had also withdrawn
themselves from the influence of their colleague's wife, which
firom that time forward became much more powerful over those

4 IV.] GERMANY AND FBANCE TILL 1792. 349

who remained. This clever woman was completely possessed
with the idea that the king was conspiring against the constitu-
tion^ and^ fiUed with indignation at the thought^ she wrote a
letter^ which her husband caused to be sent to the king bj his
colleagues^ and partly couched in the very phrases and ex-
pressions which she had employed, in order to induce him to
recall his refusal to confirm die two most hatefiil decrees which
had ever been submitted to him for his approval. It ia almost
incredible how such thoroughly dry and prosaic men as Roland
and his colleagues were, could ever think of subscribing and
sending such a letter to the king in their own names, — a letter
written by a woman who was continually dreaming of Athens
and Rome, and Utopian republics. Madame Roland wrote
well, but she considered the subject completely like a woman
and personally, never taking into account either the rank, edu-
cation, usages, or situation of the king, or the nature of the cir-
cumstances. In this letter she gave the king a severe lecture on
his duties towards the people, poured out the flood of her resent-
ment against those whom she rails at as priests and aristocrats,
respecting whom the king however must have necessarily enter-
tained opinions very different from hers, as she ought to have
known, because his friends, relations and acquaintances were
amongst the number. She reproaches him for favouring people
who had never scolded him, as she and her republicans did, lays
before him the catalogue of his sins, and tells him how often he
had already broken his pledged fidelity*.

Three days elapsed without any reply from the king to this
improper letter sent to him by his ministers ; Roland then read
the letter itself, which was merely calculated to work on the pas-
sions of the people, in the council and in presence of the king,
on which his majesty replied, that ^' he knew not why he must
submit to hear this letter a second time.'^ The king having
continued to refuse his assent to the decrees, or to yield to the
insolent demands of his ministers, they sent in their resignations
on the evening of the 12th. On the morning of the 13th, they
were informed of their acceptance by the king, because Dumou-
rier now hoped to form a ministry exactly of his own views, and
for that reason took charge of the war department instead of
Servan ; for Lacoste and Duranton also had declared against the

* The whole letter has been introduced by Thiers into the text of his
' Histoire de la lUvolution Fran^aise/

S50 FIFTH P|BI»I0Pt--<^P«0O|f P PJVI810K. [op, I.

latterj wd agaiiuit Roland and his friends, Dumouri^r found
ttnm men who were ready to undertake the officer vacated by
the resignation of his oolleaguesi but he wished the king to
follow his orooked paths i I^uia XYL however was too honour^
able for thia« The aoceptanoe of the two degrees, according to
Dumourierj was absolutely necessary in order to ealm the public
e](citementi but the king was to rely ponfidently oirbim and his
coUeeguesj whp by the inanner of carrying them into execution
would tak9 eere completely to frustrate the demagoguea and
their designs.

The king's absent to the decrees had now become indiipen*
eablej beeause the retired ministers had taken a most unpardon-
able stapj and caused this bitteF^ passionate and exciting letter
of nvidame Roland to be read in the national assembly^ and the
formal accusation against tj^e king, which it containe4i to be
thus made public* The asHembly manifeited its approbation of
the Qontents by unequivocal applause, ordered the letter to be
printed and sent into all the departments, and thereby caused a
univerval commotion amongst the whole of that class which was
at that time eaUed the people in France*. The king adhered
the more firmly to his resolutioni as not only the royalistsy
who to his and their own misfortune always filled his antor
chambera, under the pretext of defending the king, but also the
authora of the conititutiouj I^afayette for emmple, urged him at
laaet to refuse his ansent to the decree against the priestii. This
event led Lafayette to take upon himself to address a letter from
his camp At Maubeuge, on the 16th of June 178^1 to the legis-
lative assembly of bis nation^ not less presumptuous in its tone
than that which the girondists had previously written to the
king in an opposite lense, Thi« letter had the effeet of de«
atroying, the whole of the general's influence for the time with the
eieited peoplej without being of the slightest advantage to the
kingt.

The king peneveringly refused his assent to the law against
the priests, and his ministers therefore resigned on the isths
Duranton and I^tcoste alone attempted impossibilities for the
king's sake» They found three men of constitutional opinions
who were willing to unite with them, although it was easy to be

* Dumourier says with great justice concerning the circulation of this in-
milting epistle, '' Cr^toife diriger lee poignards ooatre le malhauraai ppieee.*'
t This letter will also be found in Thien'A History.

i iy«] OSRMA¥T AND flUNOII TILL }799t 851

foraseen that thia new mimitry eould not stwd three diiyq, la
the meantime^ Dumourier^ aQCordi9g to hUi owUm, hud taken
good oim of bimtelft He htd put into the ermy «U the most
violent jaoobinq end cordeliere^ who were ebrefu^y beoome ex*
tremely hoetUe to the gentle and mild girondi«(« and what they
oeUed their half-meaeurea, and proeured for himeelf a general
command in the army* where he afterwerde performed great
things a» a general and diplomati«t«

In the meantime a formal ineurreotion of the lower oUias^ii
in Paris waa organised against the king and the new nunistry«
The republioan ministry of the Gironde had made emmgements
for supplying the insurreotionary oommittee of the communesf
long since appointed* with money from the publio treasury for
the prmnotion of their otgeets» or to use en expression more
agreeable to the ears of madame Bolund end hm virtuous iriendsj
to enliven the patriotism of the people {p(mr richvuiffir lepa-
triotifme). This they did* and the seeret ccmmiittee of the
jacobin club furnished the ways and means (or the exeoutioQ of
the plan« Santerre^ the good-natured brswer and Mend of the
duke of Orleans, set the laubouig Sti Antoine in motion by
means of his workmen) and because all the public authorities
aided instead of obstructing the design, on the 20tb of June a
ragged and audacious mob was collected under the name of the
Piopk of Pffrii, by means of a vain pretext, and to the astonish**
ment and alarm of all respectable persons* The celebration of
the anniversary of the tennis-court sitting of the 80th of Juno
1789 furnished the pretext i this, it was said, should be oommc"
morated by setting up a tree of liberty, and at the same time peti^
tions should be prepared and presented against aristocrats and
priests. On the morning of Uie 80tb, about eight o'clock,
crowds of women, children and vagabonds^ aocompanied by
throngs of labourers, poured forth from the three faubourgs and
directed their course towards the hall of the natiomd assembly.
Although the crowd dragged some pieces of cannon with them,
and may have amounted to from 8000 to 10,000 men, it could
easily have been arrested in its progress, if those in authority
had so desired I but no means were taken for this purpose.
This is deducible from the fact, that Potion, the mayor, did not
call out the national guard till it was dear that the propmr ol^eot
of the insurrection had failed i and further, that some of tha
most ianatioal jacobins, as Fanii^ Sargent, Hue and Fatris^ wera

352 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BC0ND DIVISION. [CH. I.

at the same time at the head of the city police and members of
the jacobin insurrectionary committee.

Indecent and scandalous ensigns were borne on poles as ban-
ners before the clamorous and insolent throng, because it was
intended to accustom the people to see all that had been pre-
viously respected and honoured^ trodden in the dust with vulgar
audacity. The first crowd before whom these savage standards
were borne consisted of women, children, the very offscourings
of the people, and low vagabonds with pikes in their hands. The
second mass was headed by Santerre, and consisted of his na-
tional guards intermixed with pikemen; and the succeeding
throng was led on by an artisan, whose voice enabled him to
play the threatening orator on this and similar occasions. In
fact Santerre and his colleague delivered addresses to the assem-
bly according to their manner, when the crowds had forced their
way into the hall, and then, to the astonishment of the assem-
bly, led the mob through their chamber and marched directly to
the palace to petition the king, as they alleged, to sanction the
decrees. Had the city police called out the palace guard and
been supported by the national guard, it would have been easy
to have defended the closed gates, notwithstanding the crowd
dragged along with them a few pieces of cannon, which were
attended by men with burning matches ; but no measures, either
for the preservation or restoration of order, were to be expected
from such people as Patris, Hue, and their companions. For
this reason the king himself should have assumed a more deter-
mined bearing ; but from fear of causing bloodshed, he caused
the outer gates to be opened, on which the crowds immediately
pressed forward into the palace, and without opposition or re-
sistance, spread themselves about through all the chambers, of
which they burst open the doors, and whither they absurdly
enough dragged along with them the cannon, which had pre-
viously terrified the king. There was no energy either in action
or word displayed by those who ought to have put down this
wild and clamorous tumult.

On the king's command, the royal family were obliged to
conceal themselves ; he himself allowed the multitude to force
their way into his chamber, where he was pressed into the recess
of a window. In this situation he was constrained to remain
for more than four hours, and to submit to the heat, rudeness, and
imminent danger to which he was exposed from the pikemen ;

§ IV.] GERMANY AND FBANCR TILL 1792. 353

this he did with an astonishing degree of passive courage^ instead
of which, in order to be able to commend him, it could be wished
he had displayed a little more energy and active resolution. He
was accompanied by his sister Elizabeth, whose temper, worthy
of the early times of Christianity, even the rudest honoured, and
the aged marshal Mouchy, together with Santerre's antipodes,
Acloque the brewer, who was present as chief of a battalion
of loyal national guards. These two warded off the various
pike-thrusts which first one and then another impudent or au-
dacious fellow aimed at the king. The refusal to pass the decree
against the clergy was the reason of this tedious imprison-
ment ; the demand was frequently repeated during the whole of
the time, but the king feared the terrors of retribution more than
the threats of the mob, and remained firm to his purpose ; but,
on the other hand, he gratified the malicious joy of the jacobins
by suffering the ancient and venerable monarchy of France to
be symbolically trodden in the dust in his person. He submitted
to wear the red jacobin cap, whose origin and use for galley-
slaves he knew, and put it on his head ; moreover he drank out
of a bottle which an audacious vagabond forced into his hand.
During this shameful scene, the national assembly played as
contemptible a character as the mayor ; for in the morning, when
the clamorous multitude marched to the palace, the assembly
adjourned its sittings till noon ; and it was only when the de-
puties were re-assembled in the afternoon that they sent a de-
putation, consisting of twenty-four members, to the Tuileries.
Acloque, and a battalion of the national guards of a quarter in-
habited chiefly by rich citizens {desfiUes de 8L Thomas), stood
firm and remained true to the king ; the guard protected the
queen and her children, as Acloque their chief did the person of
the king ; and Petion the mayor, with the rest of the national
guard, first showed himself at the conclusion of this melancholy
scene.

This day moreover was a day of delusion ; for as no definite
plan or object had been settled for the undertaking, nothing was
really attained, and it even appeared at first as if the originators
of the tumult would have effected precisely the opposite of that
which they had intended to accomplish. The national assembly
felt ashamed of being misused, and that they and the king had
been disgraced before the eyes of all Europe. Paris,- and all
educated Frenchmen in the whole kingdom, felt indignant at

VOL. VU 2 A

854 FIFTH PBBIOD^ — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I«

the manner in which freedom and the new constitution had been
dishonoured by the very dregs of the people, who had been ex-
cited and led on by the profligates and criminals of the wine-
shops. Lafayette ought to have taken advantage of the favour-
able moment, and by a resolute and rapid movement saved both
the king and the constitution $ but he proved that he was only
great in laying plans and constructing phrases, while he was
very little in execution and action. Rochambeau having re-
signed, he was at that time at the head of the army of the north :
most of the departmental councils gave utterance to their abhor-
rence of the scenes enacted on the 20th of June ; Rouen, Havre
and whole departments publicly denounced the mischief which
had been perpetrated; the national guard of P^s even com-
plained of the conduct of the mayor, and declared they had been
intentionally prevented from appearing at the proper time. Two
petitions, signed by thousands of respectable names, were present-
ed to the national assembly, beseeching them to take means to
put an end to such shameful wickedness, as it was therein called.
The aged Lacretelle, in his small-talk respecting the revolu-
tion in his ' Dix Annies,' &c., relates, what is deserving of at-
tention, because he at that time held the office of private secre-
tary to the president of the department of Paris (Larochefou-
cault). He states, that he will not conceal the fact, that one of
the petitions against the scenes of the 20th of June was signed
by 8000 and the other by 20,000 citizens, and that the public
displeasure was so great as to cause the suspension of Potion
and Manuel for a time from their offices, because they had not
fulfilled their duty. When afterwards, on the 28th, the cause of
the constitutionalists was ruined by Lafayette^s want of skill,
the national assembly, which had been previously alarmed for
their safety and power, now recovered resolution and drew the
prosecution before themselves. On the 13th of July the two
girondists were acquitted and restored, and on the following
day (the 14th) they triumphed and insulted the king at the ffte
of the confederation. Lafayette grounded his plan of carrying
away the king from the city and conducting him to Normandy,
where the great majority belonged to the party of the mo-
narchical constitutionalists, which was by far the strongest, on
the general dislike against those who avsdled themselves of the
assistance of the mob to promote their views ; but he could not
resolve to act with boldness and rapidity without first wiiting

§ IV.] QEBHANY AND PBANOB TILL 1792. 355

and speaking much on the subject. The letter of the 16th
already mentioned^ and which was read on the 18th^ had already
excited a great dislike to his pretensions ; his arbitrary departure
firom the army, his appearance in Paris on the 28ih of June^ and
his speech to the assembly^ before which he appeared uncalled^
caused universal displeasure. All writers on the subject^ and
all the eye-witnesses with whom we have conversed^ are of the
same opinion^ which LacreteUe has pronounced in his report of
the character which he himself played at that time among the
constitutionalists — ^that Lafayette^ if he had immediately turned
to the national guard after his arrival in Paris^ might have played
the same part for the maintenance of the constitution by their
favour and assistance^ which Buonaparte acted on the 18th
Brumaire for his own elevation. He did not however turn to
the national guard till he had failed in his speech before the
assembly and with the king^ and then indeed it was too late.

Lafayette assumed such a tone in the national assembly^ that
if he was not prepared to give effect to his language by force
of arms^ he must necessarily lose all his political distinction by
his insulting conduct. He reproached them severely on account
of the events of the 20th; demanded the suppression of the
jacobins^ whom he denominated a faction ; and a return of the
respect due to the constitutional authorities. His address ex-
cited a violent storm: proposals were made to arraign him
because he had left the army without leave, and it was only
with difficulty accomplished that the assembly should con-
temptuously proceed to the order of the day. Having failed in
his attempt in the national assembly^ he wished to persuade the
king and the queen to put their confidence in him, and to suffer
him to convey them from Paris to Rouen. His conversation
with the queen convinced him that she felt too great a repug-
nance towards him fully to confide in bis plans^ even for her
own deliverance. In fact, nothing could be effected in the
Tuileries by his instrumentality. Notwithstanding this, it will
be seen from the passage* of Lacretelle's recollections, which

* Dix Annies d'Epreuvee, &c. vol. i. p. 89 : " L'effet de la d^ib^ration de
la p^titioD d'ttoe aimee qu'apportoit ou supposoit le g^n^ral fut (roid, c'est a
dire, qa'iliut perdu. II est vrai que raasembl^e ne se courrcnifa pas d'abord.
Elle avoit tremble qxtelques joure auparavant devant des piques ; elle sembloit
h^iter devant I'epie du g^n^al. II put en sortir sans signe caract^ris^
d'aasentimeiit ni de bl&me. Cependant nou» les aucien» grenadieri ou cha8»eur$
de la garde nationale, nous avons tftche h, la b4te de lui former on cort^e im-

2a2

356 FlFTn PERIOD. — BBCOND DIVISION. [CH.I.

we subjoin^ that Lafayette, even on the evening of the 28th, and
therefore after he had been in the national assembly and with
the king, could have restored the constitutional autiiorities at
the head of the national guard, had he been quick and decisive
in his movements. The most respectable citizens were ready to
assist him and to put an end to those lawless institutions by
virtue of which the jacobin club had become the first legislative
and executive body in the kingdom ; but he could come to no
fixed determination in the evening, and the next morning it was
too late.

From this moment the parties within and without the national
assembly, each under its own leaders, assumed a hostile attitude
towards each other, and the contest on which they entered is
therefore of the greatest importance for a speciid history of
France and the explanation of her policy ; Thiers however has
treated the whole subject at great length, and that portion of the
second part of his * History of the Revolution,' in which this
subject is discussed, indisputably belongs to the best parts of
his work ; we shall therefore refer our readers to his pages. A
general notice of the course of those events which preceded and
bore upon the dissolution of the monarchy is sufficient for our
general history, leaving the details of speeches, scenes in the
assembly, and the intriguing activity of the heads of parties to
those who make such details a specific study. There could be no
want of theatrical exhibitions when persons were met together
who were desirous of obtaining notoriety by speeches, gestures,
toasts, songs, and similar means ; such scenes therefore were of
daily occurrence in the national assembly and clubs, the sections
and the Palais Royal. One of these scenes which took place in

posant. Nous avions ii6 pr^venos fort tard d'one d-marche si hardie, etdont
le but n ^it pas clairexnent indiqu^. La foi aveugle se pr^crit mal k an
corps de Tolontaires ; pourtant nous ^tions assez Dombreux, et je crois, plus
aventureux dans nos projets que le g^n^ral lui-m6me. Nous attendimes avec
anxi^t^, avec impatience, le r^ltat d'une longue entrevue qa'il eut avec le
roi. Nous remitfquions des signes d'une morne inqui^de chez las r^vola-
tionnaires. Leurs groupes ne se formoient pas ou se dispersoient it notre vue.
AuxjacMiu, Marchoru awe jacobins / Ce cri partoit de la bouche de plusiears
membres de Tassembl^ constituante mdl^s parmi nous» tels que Tezcellent
et courageux Dupont de Nemours et Regnault de Saint Jean d'Angely . Lafa-
yette sortit enfin du palais, et nous le vimes avec consternation prendre le

cheminde son h6tel au faubourg St. Germain Apr^unenenred'at-

tente nous fOmes tristement cong^di^. On nous donna des esp^rances pour
le lendemain, et penonne n*y crut. Nous eomprtmes que nous n'avions pas en-
core irouvi le grand homme qui devoit chre la r^httUm. Ah ! qu'ilfallut long-
temps Tattendre."

§ IV«] GERMANY AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 357

the national assembly, where there was a grand display of emo-
tions, embracings, tears of joy, and other ingredients of French
novels, has obtained an historical importance among the events of
the revolution. This scene was caused on the 7th of July by La-
moiurette, the constitutional bishop of Lyons, who addressed the
deputies on the evils and misfortunes of their bitter party-spirit
in such a pathetic and affecting strain, that all suddenly vowed
to forget their mutual animosities, embraced each other and
were reconciled, in the midst of the loud rejoicings and applause
of the people in the galleries. This transitory reconciliation is
called LamcmreU^B kiss of peace.

The reconciliation of the 7th of July might perhaps have
borne some fruit, had not the constitutional deputies in the
national assembly, and even some of the girondists, insisted on
the punishment of the originators of the scenes of the 20th of
June. Manuel and Potion, who were at the head of the mu-
nicipal administration of Paris, were to be prosecuted, and it
would therefore have been easy for them to have delivered and
destroyed all the adherents of the monarchy by a new general
insurrection. Since the 2nd of July, the national guard had
been so organized by law, that the guardsmen from among the
lower classes, who were armed with pikes, played a leading part
in all its operations, because all respectable persons were filled
with disgust. By the law just referred to, the whole general
staff of the national guard of Paris, and of all cities containing
50,000 inhabitants, were dismissed, and the grenadiers of the rifle
companies disbanded, because such distinctions in names and
dress were contrary to equality. As the insurrection prepared
in July was to call forth an ideal republic, all the girondists
also, particularly Brissot, Vergniaud, Guadet and Condorcet,
from the middle of the month, adopted the tone and language of
Camille Desmoulins and Danton.

The declaration of war made on the part of Austria and
Prussia was instrumental in promoting the success of the coup
deforce against the king, the monarchy, and everything in any
wise connected with the old order of things. The Austrians,
Prussians and emigrants no sooner made a forward movement
against France, and the Sardinians began to threaten the
south, than advantage was taken of the pretext of the safety
of the nation to effect the abolition of all the existing authori-
ties and institutions. A levy of the people en masse was pro-

358 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. I.

claimed in order to defend the frontiers^ and a patriotic move-
ment originated which must necessarily set all law at defiance.
It was so much the easier to turn this general movement and
national indignation against the king and the monarchy^ as every
one knew that the court had kept up an uninterrupted correspond-
ence vnth the enemies^ and the queen was in the habit of anxiously
calculating the number of days which it would take the allies to
reach Paris. Two negotiators on the part of the king had now for
a long time been with the Prussians^ one of whom^ major-general
Heymann^ belonged to the old school^ and the other^ Mallet du
Pan^ a Genevese^ like the German political philosophers^ regarded
the royal EngUsh aristocracy as the very ideal of human perfec-
tion. These two agents of the same king entertained however
completely different views^ and worked against each other ; and
Cobenzl as well as Haugwitz^ who had at that time begun to
play his part in Prussia^ were always unwilling even to recognise
Mallet du Pan. On the entrance of the allied army into
Prance, the duke of Brunswick, as commander-in-chief, was
necessarily obliged to issue a manifesto, on the tenor of which
the agents of Louis XVI. and the princes were consulted.
Heymann and Mallet du Pan entirely concurred in the opinion
that it ought not to be threatening, and that the powers must
not assume the right of entering the country as judges, but in
the character of mediators between the king and the nation.
This wish, which was expressed in the name of the king, for
whose relief the whole expedition was designed, was warmly
opposed by the count d'Artois, who seems to have been bom to
bring calamity and ruin upon the elder branch of the Bourbons,
and by the worthless Calonne as representatives of the emi-
grants, who were thirsting after a bloody revenge.

It was the influence of the emigrants which caused the duke's
manifesto to be composed in a tone totally different from the
moderate views and language which had been previously em-
ployed in the declaration of war. They availed themselves of
the shameful scenes of the 20th of June, and of the spirit which
from the middle of July had daily become more murderous and
threatening, to persuade the Austrians and Prussians that the
king's life could only be saved by announcing the most dreadful
threats against the authors of those disturbances, although the
deeds of the disturbers of the public peace furnished proofs in
abundance that they were not to be terrified by threats. Calonne

§ IV.] OBRMANY AKD FRANCS TILL 1792. 859

employed the marquis de Limon^ an emigrant^ who had been in
the service of the duke of Orleans^ and prevailed upon him un-
invited to force himself upon the notice of the good emperor
Francis, who knew nothing either concerning politics or mani-
festos, and to overreach him. The marquis prepared the draft
of a manifesto and proceeded to Frankfort, where the emperor
then was on account of his coronation, was recommended to
him hj Calonne, and obtained his approval of the document.
Having succeeded in procuring the emperor's recommenda-
tion, he went with his miserable performance to the king of
Prussia then in Majence, to whom also his paper seemed
suitable for the occasion and circumstances. The duke of
Brunswick, who bore the blame of this manifesto for his whole
life, by which he was at once exposed to ridicule and hatred,
was wholly dissatisfied both with its substance and tone ; but
what could a Frenchman and complete courtier, such as he was,
do ? could he venture to oppose both the illustrious monarchs?
That was impossible.

The duke helped himself, as men of the world, diplomatists,
and the servile retainers of the great always do ; he pursued
the middle course, which leads to mediocrity. He conceived
that what was thoroughly bad could be changed and modified so
as to satisfy all parties, by alterations made by some political
sophists or official scribes. With this view, count Philip Co-
benzl, baron Spielmann, count Schulenburg, and privy councillor
Renfher, the two former Austrians and the two latter Prussians,
revised the marquis of Limon's draft and made some alterations.
The duke of Brunswick signed the manifesto in its modified
form on the 26th of July. It is obvious that Renfner's altera-
tions were very immaterial, for the manifesto was no sooner
issued, than it excited the deepest ^cli^leasure of all moderate
and intelligent men^. "■ '

This unlucky manifesto, which was fiill of ridiculous and cruel
threats against all those who had at that time any influence and

* Iq the appendix to part ii. of Sugar's ' Hist, des princ. E^^nemens da
R^e.de Fr^. Gaiil. IT./ and among the Pieces juttiflcaHves, will be found,
p. 355, '^Motifs daRoi de Pnisse pour prendre les armes contre la France;"
p. 362, " Declaration de S. A. S. le dac r^g^nant de Bmnsvic et de Lunebourg
commandant lea arm^ combines de S. M. I'empereur et le roi de Prusse
adress^ anz habitans de France ;'* and pp. 362-363, the Dicktration additum'
neUe of the 27th of July. The last two documents are contained in Beaulieu^
Essais, cet. iii. p. 412, &c., and the first also in Thiers.

360 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

power in France^ reached Paris at the very moment in which
Danton's cordeliers^ Robespierre's jacobins, and the enthusiastic
republicans of the Gironde had come to a complete understand-
ing on the necessity of abolishing monarchy and establishing a
republic, in order to rescue the national honour, and on the law-
Ailness of any means by which these ends might be promoted.
The jacobins, who were under the leading of Robespierre, had
not from the first approved of the reconciliation of the 7th of
July, and the reconciled parties no sooner again disagreed, on
account of the judicial investigation of the scenes enacted on the
20th of June, than they promoted anarchy. Barbaroux and his
over-sanguine friends called forth an insurrection in the southern
departments of France ; Servants decree relating to the army of
patriots was placarded on the walls of Paris in another form, in
which it did not require the king's sanction, and immediately eight
hundred horrible miscreants, who were called Marseillese, were
ordered by Barbaroux to come to Paris. As early as the 9th of
July, those ministers who had accepted office on Dumourier's re-
tirement, in order to please the king, were compelled to relinquish
their places, and the new ministry which was attempted to be
formed by Dejoly, the successor of Duranton, and the only one
who retained his office, properly speaking, was never organized.
We do not even record the names of the six colleagues whom
Dejoly selected, because all their influence completely ceased
after the 11th, when it was declared that the country was in
danger.

By the decree issued on the 11th, in which the declaration
was made that the country was in danger y the system of legis-
lation changed the whole of France into a great camp"*^. All the
legislative and executive bodies were to hold uninterrupted
sittings, that is, were declared permanent ; the deputies of the
people, the councils of the communes, and the sections in the
cities therefore took the government upon themselves, and exer-
cised immediate jurisdiction through their committees without

* The following words contain the substance of the declaration : '' Les
conseils de d^partement et de district se rassemblent, et sont, ainsi que les
conseils des communes, en surveillance permanente; aucun fonctionnaire
public ne peut s'^oigner de son poste. Tous les citoyens en ^tat de porter les
armes, et ayant d^j& fait le service de garde nationale, sont mis en ^tat d'acti-
vit^ permanente. Tous les citoyens sont tenus de declarer le nombrc et la
nature des armes et des munitions dont ils sont pourvus. Le corps l^gislatif fixe
le nombre des gardes nationales & foumir par chaque d6partement« le rassem-
blement s'en fait aussitdt."

§ IV.] GBBMANT AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 361

an application to the ministry or any other intermediate author-
ity^ and their bodies received regular instructions as to their
course of action from the leaders of the clubs. This artificial
and forced condition was characterized by the name of the crisis,
and this crisis was to be announced throughout the whole of the
kingdom by the firing of minute-guns. Measures were forthwith
adopted tluDUghout all the cities^ towns and villages of France^ to
enroll thousands of volunteers for the defence of the nation in the
lists opened for that purpose. In order to give this enrolment
as much solemnity and publicity as possible^ amphitheatres were
erected in all the squares and public places^ where the volun-
teers were invited to enter and sign their names in the presence
of the municipal officers and amidst the continual rolling of
drums. By these means it happened^ that many who were not
friends of a republic, but anxious for peace, order and nationality,
thought it better to join the armed force which was destined
to fight against the priests, princes and nobles of the old rSffime,
than to encounter the imminent dangers with which they were
daily threatened at home. In this way also, all peaceful citizens
were brought under the surveillance of the jacobins and pro-
moters of tumult.

Thef^te of the 14th of July was celebrated this time by very
different persons from those who had been present on the two
previous years. Those who attended the solemn act of confe-
deration in 1792 were from that time forward called C09|/i?d6ra/e«,
which expression came to signify the same as terrorists. Manuel
and Potion, it is true, as well as some other deputies of the Gi-
ronde, continued to be associated with the wild and destructive
tools of Danton and Marat till September; but the proper heads
of the girondist party, or all those republicans who were op-
posed to a state of lawlessness and anarchy, perceived as early as
the 14th of July, the object at which Robespierre, Marat, Dan-
ton and Camille Desmoulins, who is not to be confounded with
the three former, were aiming; the most moderate of the party
therefore endeavoured to free themselves from the fanatics and
scoundrels and to draw nearer to the king. The ablest men
among the republicans, Brissot, Guadet and Vei^iaud, opened
a correspondence with the king : their letters were afterwards
found during the plundering of the Tuileries, and were used by
their enemies against them; they were unable however to come
to any understanding, because they only promised to save the

862 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. I.

king upon conditions to which the latter thought he could not
possibly accede. The above-mentioned deputies demanded that
the king should restore the ministry to office which had been
dismissed in June and sanction the decree against the priests ;
on his refusal to accede to these conditions, they left him to his
fate. From this moment forward, the most of those who be-
longed to the party called the Oironde regarded themselves as
ill-treated, and left the field open to such men as CanuUe Des-
moulins, Danton, and other hot-headed persons of the party,
among whom we may particularly mention the names of Ma-
nuel, Barbaroux, Buzot and Potion, because as early as February
1793 they bitterly repented of, and were compelled to pay a
heavy penalty for the share which they took in the insurrection
of the lOth of August.

From this time forward the dethronement of the king was
demanded on all sides by petitions from the communes, ma-
gistrates and sections of Paris ; in one of these petitions, which
was presented by Potion as mayor of Paris, the petitioners in-
sisted with great warmth that the national assembly should not
delay to pay attention to these repeated demands, which were
urgently preferred from all quarters, and the spirit of the peti-
tion was supported by many deputies. It soon however became
obvious, that it was as little possible in any legal way to pro-
claim the king's forfeiture of his right to the throne, as to cause
a republic to be decreed by an assembly of deputies whose
powers were derived from a monarchical constitution, and the
very object of whose deliberations was to confirm and establish
this constitution by wise laws: it was therefore necessary to
have recourse to other means. The means adopted was a re-
course to the pretended sovereignty of the mob, called the people,
which had been called into action on the 20th of June, without
however having any definite plan or following any systematic
course ; this was now to be done.

In order to facilitate the general rising, which it was resolved
to effect, a decree was issued by the national assembly on the
15th of July, by virtue of which three regiments of the line,
then in Paris, were to depart for the army. The Swiss also were
ordered to join the forces in the field ; but in order to take them
immediately from the city, they were first to be removed to a
distance of fifteen hours from Paris. The removal of the Swiss
guard from Paris, who, if they had been together, would have

§IV.] GBRlfANT AND FRANCS TII»I« 1792. 86S

been able to prevent the accomplishment of the plana devised by
the leaders of the mob on the 10th of August^ was not acceded to
by D'Aflfty their commander-in-chief^ as being contrary to the
engagements existing between France and the Swiss cantons ;
the united body of the Swiss guards was not however together
at the decisive moment^ because a division of them was stationed
in Courbevoie. The insurrection^ which was resolved upon for
August; was chiefly promoted from the middle of July by two
advocates of great talents^ who devoted all their powers to the
task; and acted under the influence of an ill-regulated enthusiasm.
They were undoubtedly men of pure patriotism and good inten-
tions; although they had recourse to criminal means. These
men were Camille Desmoulins and Barbaroux, the former of
whom was an advocate in Paris and led the people by his
speeches^ and the latter^ who was an advocate in Marseilles^ put
the whole south of France in motion. The masses of the people
who were to be worked upon in the wine-shops and streets^
and to be roused to action by money and the payment of their
scores^ were entrusted to such people as Chabot^ Bazire and
DantoU; who employed for their object the murderous writings
of Marat; Fr^ron^ and the innumerable pamphleteers of the
time. P^tiou; who ought to have preserved order^ behaved as
if offended ; Manuel; his procwreur, suflered himself to be em-
ployed as the tool of Danton ; he was obliged to acquiesce even
in the payment of the murderers and assassins whom they
employed; because the magistrates of his communC; ChaumettC;
Panis; Sergent and otherS; also took part in the September
massacres; as early as November however he expressed his
contrition; declared his abhorrence of a system into which he had
been dragged; and wholly withdrew from the criminal portion
of the friends of freedom in January 1793; by refusing in the
most solemn manner to vote for or be accessory to the death of
the king^.

The jacobinS; and particularly the adherents of the family of
Orleans; relied upon Santerre and his good-natured narrow-

* Manael did all in his power to save the king, and when unsacceMfbl in
his effort 8, he withdrew from the convention, regardless of the imminent
danger to which he exposed himself. He took his leave with the following
remarkable words : — " Citoyens repr^sentans, qu'avez vous fait? . . . tels que
vons ^tes (la v^rit^ m'^chappe), oui tels que vous dtes, vous ne poavez plus
sanver la France ; I'homme de bieo n'a plus que de s'envelopper dans son
manteau."

364 FIFTH PERIOD* — SECOND DIVISION. [CH, !•

mindedness^ not only for the systematic and progressive orga-
nization of the mob^ but they had a committee especially ap-
pointed for working their cause amongst the labourers of the
faubourgs and for the payment of their wine-scores*. This
committee had established its quarters in two of the largest
wine-shops {Le Soleil d^or and Le Cadran bleu) of the faubourg St.
Antoine, in order to inspire Santerre's pikemen with fanaticism
and rage. The national assembly suffered aU this to go on^ not
certainly because the majority approved of such iniquitous pro-
ceedings^ but because they dared not maintain the authority of
justice and the police by any eneigetic measures ; they even
remained quiet on the 25th of July^ when informed of the
dreadful murders in Provence and the revolting cruelties which
had been perpetrated in Aries. Those authorities^ which were
composed of respectable men^ despaired of their influence^ and
as early as the 23rd of July^ eight members of the departmental
council of Paris resigned their offices ; Roederer^ who retained
his office of procureur, and subsequently played a conspicuous
part as a democrat and Buonapartist, was afterwards accused of
havings as a jurist and diplomatist, been guided by the circum-
stances and not by his conscience^ and of having played the part
of a Judas on the 1 0th of August at the seizure and imprisonment
of the king. During the concluding days of July^ Condorcet
laboured industriously in preparing essays^ which in reference to
style and sophistical republican arguments may be regarded as
masterly, and with which became forward on the 10th and llth
of August^ as if they had been the productions of the moment
On the 26th of July, Ouadet employed all the powers of his
eloquence in order to induce the national assembly to resolve
that the king had forfeited his right to the throne.

According to the political creed of the democrats of the time^

* Carra in his ' Annales Patriotiques' gives the foUowing account : — " Ce
comit^ s'assembla dans la salle de correspondance aux jacobins. On tira
cinq des qnarante-quatre membres, dont il ^toit compost, pour en former le
directoire d'insurrection ; ces cinq ^toient, Vaugeois. grand vicaire de iMv^que
Gr^oire, Debess^ de laDrdme, Guillaume, prof^sseur k Caen, Simon, jouma-
liste de Strasbourg, et Galissot de Langres. Je fus adjoint k ces cinq mem-
bres, et peu de jours apr^ on y invita Fournier 1' Am^ricain, Klenlin de Stras-
bourg, Santerre, Alexandre, commandant du faubourg St. Marceau, Lazouski,
capitaine des canonniers du faubourg St. Marceau, ^toine de Metz, ex-con-
stituant, Langrey et Garin, ^lecteurs de 1789* et dcms la suite Gorsas et CamilJe
Desmoulins. La premiere stance de ce directoire pour la joum^ du 10 Aoilt
se tint dans le cabaret du Soleil d'or, rue Set. Antoine, pr^ de la fameuse
Bastille, dans la nuit du 25 au 26 Juillet," &c.

§ IV.] GBBlf ANY AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 365

the sovereign people alone could determine and execute what
those who put themselves forward as their organs eagerly desired ;
the national assembly therefore adopted measures to justify them
by supposing that the sovereign people was always assembled.
It published a decree^ in which the forty-eight assemblies of the
sections of Paris were declared to be legally permanent^ and it was
therefore only necessary to wait each evening till all the prosper-
ous, quiet and peaceable inhabitants had retired to their homes, or
become weary of the strife, disputation and blustering, and there
existed in the midst of Paris these forty-eight smoking volcanos.
These desperate men, who had been assembled in the southern
provinces of France by the friends of Barbaroux, and called Mar-
seillese, were to be employed for the execution of their design;
these men obtained their name fix)m having been collected in
Marseilles, from the refuse of the sea-ports of Africa and the
Levant. Barbaroux has himself informed us in his Memoirs of
the zeal by which he was animated in urging the forwarding of
the Marseillese to Paris, but is very careful to conceal the fact
that they consisted of bandits, vagabonds, pardoned convicts,
and other scum of the sea-port towns. Santerre was appointed
to welcome this delivering army, and to proceed to meet them,
accompanied by the whole national guard of his faubourg ; this
however could not be done quite as had been wished ; notwith-
standing this, they met with a splendid reception on their en-
trance into Paris on the 30th of July. The most general hospi-
tality was shown, and they were intentionally invited to enter-
tainments with the national guards of the better class*. They
were first quartered in a barrack, but as the time approached in
which they were to be employed as instruments for the realiza-
tion of the plans of their leaders, they were removed into a sec-
tion {des Cordeliers) where they would be near the central point
of the storm, in which they were to be chief agents.

When at length the 9th of August arrived, and all was ready
for storming the royal palace, the good-natured Santerre hesitated
long before he could bring himself to consent to become the
leader of a band of murderers ; moreover he was not a man who

* Potion, as mayor, caused arms, powder and ball to be distributed amongst
these dangerous people. In this way quarrels arose, which led to absolute
contests between the entertainers and the guests, the national guards of tiie
sections detfilUs de 8i, Thonuu and des petits ph'et and the Marseillese. Many
sons of respectable citizens were dangerously wounded in the fray, and followed
from the Champs Elysto into the interior of the Toileries.

366 FIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

had seen militaiy service ; but he was provided with one of those
sergeants who in former times^ and as is still the case in England,
were the supports of the noble cadets, performed the real ser-
vice and became the generals of the revolution. Westermann,
who subsequently served with distinction as an officer, and was
afterwards with general Rossignol, the journeyman coppersmith,
in La Vendue, was obliged, as it is said, to compel Santerre by
force to obey Danton's hints* The same services which Wes-
termann performed in the fitubourg St. Antoine were rendered in
the faubourg St. Marceau by Foumier, whose appearance in the
streets of Paris was in the following years regarded as an indi-
cation of some new explosion of violence. Fournier had been a
West India planter, and having lost his property during the first
disturbances in the colonies, he afterwards played one of the
most dreadful parts on every occasion in Paris under the by-name
of ' The American.' On the 9th and 10th of August he marched
at the head of the Marseillese.

On the evening of the 9th of August 1792, the same course
was pursued as had become usual ; the rabble, denominated the
sovereign people, gathered together in the sectional assemblies
to pass their resolutions, waited till the peaceful citizens were
either scattered about on the various military posts or had retired
to rest, before they commenced their deUberations in the forty-
eight sections of Paris, on the propriety of suspending the func-
tions of all the existing authorities* A decree was issued, by virtue
of which the sovereign people resumed all the powers which it
had at any time conferred, and undertook the immediate rights
of l^islation and government, or entrusted their execution to a
committee of the sections, which was immediately chosen (only
during the insurrection) and met in the saloon of the arch-
bishop's palace (eviche), where also the constituent assembly
on their arrival in Paris had long held their meetings. At mid-
night the signal was given by the firing of artillery ; the alarm-
bells were rung during the whole of the night, and those who
had been provisionally chosen to fill the places of the old magi"
strates under the new order of things were called into action.
The immense mass of men of violence and blood began their
march. Westermann, in connexion with Santerre, led the people
of the faubourg St. Antoine; Alexander, Santerre's brother-in-
law, headed those of St. Marceau ; Barbaroux the Marseillese ;
and Panis the section of the arsenal. If however the depart*

§ IV.] OBRMANT AND FBANCB TILL 1792. 367

mental or the municipal magistrates Iiad fulfdled their duty^ the
whole uproar would have been easily nipped in the bud.

The whole tumultuous undertaking was so horrible, that the
real national guard was ready to espouse the cause of the king
and the monarchy, and the mayor and council of the city were
ashamed of the appearance of having taken any part in this dis-
graceful aflhir. Till seven o'clock in the morning of the 10th
all possible measures were adopted, and Potion even gave orders
to repel force by force. He afterwards endeavoured to get pos-
session of the orders which he had issued, and the murder of
the officer who bore them was attributed, not directly to Potion,
but at least to persons who wished to save his popularity. The
unwise and hated royalists of the old school, who by their patri*
cian pride had deprived the king of a faithful guard, also damped
the zeal of the national guard in this decisive moment by their silly
and sentimental courUy offidousness. They filled the anticham-
bers as if they had been about to pay their court to his majesty,
and kept the king apart from the citizens, who alone could have
protected him ; these distinguished courtiers however were by
much too weak to have made any serious defence, whilst they
were really ruinous as councillors.

As early as two o'clock in the morning the Tuileries was
threatened with an assault, but the palace was protected by 900
Swiss, under Bachmann and Maillardoz. From excess of pru-
dence, they had not ventured hastily to summon the second di-
vision of the Swiss, who were at Courbevoie, to Paris, although
it lay only an hour and a halTs distance firom the capitaL The
national guard of citizens belonging to the quarters on which
reliance could be placed were doubled, as it is usually said, but
they were in reality tripled, for they amounted to 1800 men,
under an able and faithful leader. This commandant was Man-
dat, formerly an officer in the French guards, and the same who
at seven o'clock in the morning had extorted orders from Petion's
shame to repel force by force, and was determined to act accord^
ingly. The concealed leaders and directors of the insurrection,
who held all the threads of this apparently wild anarchy in their
hands, took therefore aU possible pains to remove him at the
very moment in which he was about to make use of the mayor's
orders. Before seven o'clock in the morning, persons appeared,
accompanied by a clamorous mob, who called themselves pleni-
potentiaries of the sovereign people, and the substitutes for those

368 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH« I.

magistrates whom the people had suspended from their func-
tions. It will be obvious that the whole afiair was previously
arranged; because Potion and Manuel retained their situations,
although the former caused himself to be confined to his own
house under arrest^ in order that he might not be compelled^ as
mayor, to appear at the Tuileries. Together with the two men
just mentioned, the sixteen administrators were also retained,
and properly speaking therefore, there was merely a number of
jacobins admitted into the Hotel de Ville to arrange these hor-
rible scenes of murder. The chief care of this council of mal-
contents was to repress and obstruct the activity of the national
guard, wherefore they also called Mandat to account, and took
immediate care to recall P6tion's directions for action. Mandat
was summoned to the Hotel de Ville : when he appeared, he was
examined respecting his measures and arrested. A pretext was
made of sending him to prison, but he was murdered either by
Rossignol or by an intimation from him. The written orders of
the mayor were taken from his pocket, and the chief command of
the national guards conferred upon Santerre, who enjoyed no
respect among the loyal portion of them. On this decisive oc-
casion the king exhibited neither prudence, firmness nor energy.
From two o'clock in the morning till six, he adopted no mea-
sures whatever; his chambers all the time were filled with ridi-
culously officious courtiers of the old school, and along with them
appeared the constitutional royalists, who for the most part, like
the excellent Larochefoucault, were very good men, but neither
valorous nor beloved. The mounted gens d^armeSy as well as
those on foot, who were stationed outside the palace, were com-
posed of the former gardes franqaises, who had already proved
disloyal in 1789, and who failed on this occasion to do their duty ;
the national guard began to hesitate ; the crowds who were ad-
vancing against the palace brought cannon along with them,
whilst its defenders were unable to disengage or employ theirs,
because the Tuileries then contained a number of enclosed courts
and buildings, of which there is now no trace remaining. When
the king at last resolved at six o^clock to go down and join bis
defenders, his appearance, suite, and want of military bearing
inspired neither courage nor respect, and the 400 persons of the
old regime, who made a show of their devotedness in the Tui-
leries, discouraged and provoked the citizens without terrifying
the assailants. The masses of the people therefore forced their

§ IV.] GERMANY AND PRANCE TILL 1792. 369-

way into the gardens of the Tuileries, filled the Place du Carous-
sel, swaggered and made a noise^ and also pointed their cannon
against the palace^ but made no violent assault upon the interior,
which was guarded by the Swiss, as long as the royal family was
present ; bitter reproaches were therefore afterwards heaped upon
Rcederer for having caused their removal.

About half-past seven Roederer caused a proclamation to be
issued in the name of the department against the insurrection,
which was publicly read on the Place du Caroussel, and Dupont
de Nemours, as a deputy of the national assembly, collected sig-
natures to a petition to the assembly, praying that body to
issue a decree for the immediate removal of the Marseillese.
Rcederer and the departmental council were at that time with the
king; they observed his irresolution, despondency and womanly,
anxiety for his family to become continually greater, as the noise
and clamour increased, which it continued to do till nine o'clock ;
this led Rcederer to offer a piece of ruinous advice, but which per-
haps was well intended. This advice was afterwards characterized
as scandalous treachery, which Rcederer committed by thus de-
livering the king into the hands of those who certainly would not
have ventured to seize upon him and his family by open force.
Rcederer perceived that the national guards no longer paid atten-
tion to him or his followers, but began to disperse, and he there-
fore advised the king to seek for protection in the midst of his
bitterest enemies, in the bosom of the national assembly. The
enemies from whom he fled, the mob, had threatened, but not
attacked ; not a hair of his head or of those of any member of his
family was hurt, and one of the most clamorous even carried him
in his arms into the assembly; but the defenders to whom the king,
upon Roederer's advice, had appealed, pronounced his deposition.
That it would have been quite possible for a resolute man at the
head of the Swiss to have dispersed the mob, the Swiss after-
wards proved, when they were compelled in their own defence to
attack the Marseillese. They drove the mob out of all the courts
of the palace, across-the Place du Caroussel, and even cleared some
of the neighbouring streets, till the king issued his commands to
cease firing, and thereby gave them up an easy prey to the blood-
thirsty populace. Rcederer conducted the royal family through
the Swiss, who formed a line on each side, under the protection
of the loyal national guards, through the garden, and by the ter-
race of the Feuillants into the national assembly. Arrived there,

VOL. VI. 2 B

370 FIFTH PERIOD. — ftBCOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

a place was assigned to the royal family which was in fact a very
small boz^ fitted up for a short-hand-writer^ but which had not
been further used. The box was protected by a lattice, and on a
level with the floor; the royal family completely filled the whole
space^ and the lattice was torn away. The mob which surrounded
the palace did not venture to make a regular attack upon the in-
terior^ defended by the Swiss^ till after ten o'clock^ and the pike-
men of the faubourgs, drawn up in military order, under colonel
Lasuski* and captain Westermann, commenced the assault. For
this purpose they had made themselves master of some pieces of
cannon. The Marseillese burst open the royal entrance^ cut
down the few Swiss who were stationed on the stairs, but made a
hasty retreat as soon as the whole body of Swiss began to fire,
and in the rapidity of their retirement left the cannon behind
them. The coiurts were cleared* of the assailants, a brisk fire
firom the windows was kept up against those who lingered behind,
and many of the mob having been slain, the Place du Caroussel
was left free ; the Swiss then advanced into the Place du Carous*
sel and proceeded further. At this moment also the Swiss who
were at Courbevoie set out to assist their countrymen in Paris,
and many battalions of loyal national guards were ready to lend
their aid. The timidity of the king ruined all.

The national assembly was struck with terror when the firing
approached the place of their meeting, and there was every reason
to suppose that they were likely to be deprived of all the advan-
tages they had gained by having the king in their power. Several
members of the assembly approached the box in which the king
and the royal family were, and complained of the firing of the
troops upon the people; Merlin even expressed himself as if he

* Three pairs of brothers, who were hostile to one aaotber, took part in the
revolutionary aflfairs and made themselves conspicuous by their zeal. Ck>unt
Mirabeau was the originator of the revolution ; nis brother the Viscount raised
the army of the emigrants. Andr^ Ch^nier, by means of his Jotcma/ 4e Pari»,
was one of the mainstays of the constitutional monarchists, and on terms of
intimate friendship with the duke de Larochefoucault and Lacretelle ; Marie
Joseph Ch^nier displayed his zeal for the republicans in the columns of the
' Moniteur/ and composed admirable poems and wild dithyrambics in latoor o(
their cause. The brothers Lasuski stood in the same sort of relation to one
another. Their father had come to Lorraine in the suite of king Stanislaus ;
they were therefore not Poles, but Frenchmen ; they were patronized by the
duke de Larochefoucault, who obtained for one of them a captain's commission
in the artillery, and had entrusted the other with the education of his sods.
The latter was almost a more zealous royalist than the duke himself; the
(ormcr a fiuuttical jacobin.

§ IV.] GBBMANT AND FBANOB TILL 1792. 371

did not know whether he ought to strike down the king or not.
The weak and irresolute monarch at length began to be afraid^
and therefore immediately despatched brigadier-general d'Her-
villy to convey his commands to the Swiss to cease firings and to
seek for protection in the assembly, as he himself had done. Of
some hundreds who obeyed the command scarcely one*third
reached the guard-house of the Feuillants^ and were there dis-
armed by the king's command. The Marseillese and faubourgers
now rushed back in crowds to the palace, when not only the
Swiss, but also a great number of persons of every rank, who were
expressly pointed out to the rabble, were heartlessly murdered.
Those who had remained in the pdace sold their lives dear, for
several hundreds of the brutal assailants fell. The Swiss had np
sooner fallen, than all the chambers of the palace were plun-
dered, the furniture destroyed, and the rooms rendered uninha-
bitable. All this also was systematically done, however wild and
uncontrollable it appeared. The number of those who fell on
this day has been however greatly exaggerated when it has been
stated to amount to 5000 ; of the 900 Swiss indeed, 750 paid
the penalty of their fidelity with their lives.

From this time forward the whole city became a terrific scene
of robbery, murder and confusion, and the royal family were
obliged to remain for sixteen hours shut up in the small chamber
into which they had been huddled, where they were almost over-
powered by the heat and blinded by the whitened walls. During
this period they had an opportunity of hearing the manner in
which the republican deputies, pretendedly under the orders of
the sovereign people, brought forward those decreas which had
been all secretly prepared for the occasion at the end of July,
Immediately after the arrival of the king, the legislative assembly
nominated an extraordinary committee, consisting of twenty-one
members, of whom the majority were republicans. The object
of this committee was to deliberate on and bring forward such
measures as should seem to them calculated to meet the emer-
gency. Before the termination of the cannonade directed by the
people of the faubourgs against the Tuileries, Vergniaud ap-
peared at the head of the committee and presented their prelimi*
nary report. The result of their deliberations was, that the king
should first of all b« suspended fix>m his functions for the time
beings the national assembly dissolved, and a new body sum-
moned, which should bear the title of ' the National Convention/

2b2

372 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOSfD DIVISION. [CH. I.

whose members, on their election by the people, were to be fiilly
empowered to establish a new constitution, founded on the prin-
ciples of freedom and equality. The leading principles of this
new constitution were discussed and settled partly on the 10th
and partly on the lith, 12th and 13th, on which days the royal
family was again brought to the assembly, where all this was
done regardless of their presence. The material points are given
below in a note*. These measures moreover were adopted in
the absence of two-thirds of the members^ for of the 745 of whom
the assembly was composed, only 280 were present.

The suspension of the king was no sooner resolved on^ and a
republican constitution decreed, than a resolution was passed
respecting a provisional government. Six ministers, to whom
Grouvelle was secretary, under the superintendence of a govern-
ing committee of the assembly, were appointed to exercise the
functions of sovereignty, and the committee was to report and
be responsible to the assembly. Roland was again created mi-
nister of the interior; Servan was assigned the war department;
Claviere undertook the finances, and Monge the marine, whilst
Lebrun was appointed minister of foreign affidrs ; all these were
members of the Gironde, but notwithstanding this, the whole
power of the government fell into the hands of the terrorists, by
means of Danton. He was not only minister of justice, but was
also the leader of the communes of Paris, which had originated
the scenes of the 10th of August, and thenceforward governed
France ; he had besides the great seal in his possession, and was
therefore the person without whose sanction the decrees of the
assembly could neither be made public nor have any legal weight.
During these tumultuary proceedings, and whilst the number of

* The first article decrees the calling of a national convention ; the 2nd, the
provisional suspension of the king ; the 3rd, the appointment of a new ministry;
the 4th, the exercise of the functions of government by the existing ministers
till the appointment of their successors ; the 6th and 7th refer to the civil Ust
and the suspension of all payments under that head, and the present provtsion
for the king ; the 8th decrees that the king and his family shall remain in the
assembly till the restoration of order in Paris, and that afterwards a suitable
residence be prepared for them in the Luxembourg (sous la sauvegarde des
eitoyens et de la lot) ; the 10th declares every officer, civil or militarv, who
may have deserted his post on the days of disturbance, infamous. In the 11th
and 12th articles it was ordered that the department and the municipality of
Paris should immediately order these decrees to be proclaimed, and that within
twenty- four hours extraordinary couriers should be despatched to each of the
eighty-three departments of the kingdom, in order that the authorities of Uiese
departments should in like manner announce them to all the communes within
twenty-four hours.

§ IV.] GBBMANT AND FRANCE TILL 1792. 373

the deputies became daily less^ the decree concerning the army
of 20^000 men under the walls of Paris, to which the king had
refused his assent, received the great seal under Danton's autho-
rity, and was made public. On the motion of Jean Debrys,
the assembly afterwards passed a resolution by which the choice
of deputies should especially devolve upon the very lowest classes
of the people, and upon those who had been the instigators and
ringleaders of the revolution. It was resolved, that in the pri-
mary assemblies every Frenchman who was twenty-five years of
age, whether possessed of property or not, should not only have
a vote, to which he was already entitled, but that he should be
eligible to become an elector and deputy, and be qualified to fill
every office in the state.

The destruction and mutilation of works of art was resorted
to on the 10th of August and subsequent days by the band of
murderers and robbers to whom the city was given up as a spoil,
partly from the mischievous disposition of the rabble, and partly
by the suggestion of the few who were the secret instigators and
leaders of the whole plot. The articles exposed to the indigna-
tion of the republicans and designedly destroyed consisted of
statues, coats of arms, and other insignia of ancient nobility.
This vandalism was even provoked and promoted by an express
decree of the national assembly, in which it was resolved that all
the royal insignia and statues should be broken, and not even the
statue of Henry IV. on the Pont iyieif/* escaped the fury of their
decree. The Idng was not released from his confinement in the
reporters' box till he had been obliged to listen to all these de-
structive resolutions and cruel decrees; at one o'clock in the
morning he and his family were removed from their ignominious
position and assigned four small chambers for their use, in the
neighbouring convent of the Feuillants*, separated from one
another and from that of their suite by glass doors. Those
writers who attach great importance to the dramatic effect of the
scenes of this day and night, or who are disposed merely to fix
their attention on the melancholy and sorrowful contemplation
of fallen greatness, and to give expression to the sympathies
which are due to sufiering innocence, have given long accounts
of the conversation and prayers of the king during this night of

* The royal family was attended by messieurs de Briges, de ChoiseuL de
Poix, d'Hervilly, Goguelat and Nantoaillet, who all slept in tiie antechamber.
De TottTzel and Aubry slept in the king's room.

374 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SBOOND DIVISION. [CB. h

sorrow, which we must pass over, because our object is neither to
affect nor shock, but to inform our readers ; and it would have
been a more agreeable duty for us to have spoken of patience and
devotion, had there not been an utter want of all dignity and
manly courage, and had not the same deficiency of magnanimity
been deducible irom the passive endurance and ceremonial devo-
tions of the king, which appeared to be exhibited in the hearty
appetite of which he had previously given evidence in the box.

On the following day (the 11th), all respectable people were
deteiTed from appearing in the streets, which presented scenes
of horror; they were filled with crowds of men intentionally
dressed in the most ftightfiil costumes, and the mtudering
bands clamoured for blood, in order to spread terror and alarm
in the neighbourhood of the king's temporary sojourn. The
royal family was again brought into the assembly on the llih,
12th and ISth, on which occasions the queen was treated in the
most vulgar and contemptuous manner. We must now briefly
advert to those definite measures which were the result of the
decrees passed in the assembly and referred to in a previous
note, because they prepared the way for the dominion of that
oligarchy of terror which professed to be founded on the will of
the sovereign people. The six ministers were not allowed to make
individual, but were required to send in united reports to the com-
mittee, or to the whole national assembly, respecting the measures
adopted by each in his own department. The 16th of August
was the day appointed for holding the primary assemblies to
choose the electors of the deputies to the national convention,
and in these every Frenchman who was twenty-one years of
age and not in the service of another Frenchman was qualified
to vote ; and, as has been already observed, every Frenchman
was eligible to office who was more than twenty-five years of
age. In order to drive the masses of poor, rude and reckless
men from all directions into these electoral assemblies, and to
terrify the peaceable citizens, it was resolved, that every person
who was obliged to leave his home for the purpose of the election
should receive a franc for every hour's distance it was neoessaiy
to travel, and three francs a day as compensation for time, which
was a great deal for the working classes. The members of the
former constituent assembly, as well as those of the existing le-
gislative assembly, were all declared to be eligible to seats in the
projected national convention. The police and the administrs-

{ IT.] OBRMANT AND FRANCB TILL 1793« 87$

lion of law and justice were brought exduaively into the hands
of those who were under the guidance of Danton^ who aimed at
the complete extirpation of everything old, and the summary
removal from the world of all the friends and supporters of the
old government. In pursuance of this plan, twelve deputies
from the national assembly, which in the name of the sovereign
people had approved of all the horrors of the lOth of August^
and treated the king as a prisoner, were sent with unlimited
powers to the army, and commissioned to remove from their
commands and offices all generals or other military and civil of-
ficers of whose fidelity there was the least suspicion. The staff of
the gens d'armes was wholly dismissed, and Santerre was defini-
tively appointed commandant of the national guard of Paris. In
order to throw the whole direction of afiidrs into the hands of
Danton, and of those who from this moment began to adopt mea-
sures for the September murders, the committees of the forty-
eight sections were also abolished. The communes of Paris
were firom this time no longer obedient to Potion, Manuel, and
their visionary friends, but to real and practical demagogues, to
Chaumette, Danton, Marat, Robespierre, Tallien, Fr^ron and
others, and the government of the kingdom was completely
wrested from the moderate party, who had been compelled to give
the king and the royal family into the hands of their opponents.

After four days of insult and suffering to which the king and
his family had been exposed, the national assembly, with some
d^ree of consideration for their privations, passed a resolu-
tion which had all the form of a law, appointing the palace
of the Luxembourg as a residence for the royal fitmily: the
commune of Paris compelled them to rescind this decree. The
commune protested against the resolution, and thereby clearly
showed their intention of judicially murdering the king. They
alleged that the palace of the Luxembourg would be too difficult
to guard, and that, as a prisoner, he ought to be committed to
the criminal prison of the Abbaye* This shameful demand was
happily evaded, and the royal family for a time bdged in the
palace of the Chancery in the Place Vendome ; the commune
however protested anew, and alleged that even there, the family
could not be safely guarded. At length the old Temple was
assigned for their temporary residence, and converted into a
species of castle. Petion and Manuel, who were already made
the tools of a party, which was governed on one side by Robes*

376 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. I.

pierrc and on the other by Danton, were compelled to remove
the royal family from the Chancery on the 14th, and conduct
them to the Temple, that is, to remove them from under the
protection of the state authorities, and to place them within the
fangs of the council of the commune. The advance of the allies
against Paris, and the ridiculous threats of the emigrants, which
were strengthened by the signature and authority of the duke
of Brunswick, gave great weight to the principle advocated by
Danton and Marat, who maintained that there was no other
means of rescuing the cause of freedom and the national honour^
than by a war of extermination carried on by the poor against
the rich, and the uneducated against the educated classes.

From the 10th of August the doctrine was universally preached^
that everything old must be thoroughly extirpated, and the re-
ligion and morality of former times put in abeyance till a new
order of things was founded ; and both Robespierre and Dan-
ton acted on this principle to its fullest extent. Horrible as
it may seem, it is yet perfectly true, that Danton, as minister of
justice, employed the administration of the sacred duty with
which he was entrusted for the protection of his fellow-citizens,
for their murder, and the funds of the state for the payment
and reward of the murderers. On the 10th and afterwards, till
the end of the month, all those who used arms to defend their
lives were prosecuted as murderers ; all those who belonged to
the higher classes were arrested for any reason whatever, or
without any reason at all, and the whole of the large buildings
of the capital were converted into prisons. Hundreds, nay thou-
sands were arrested under the pretence of having killed some of
the patriots on the lOth of August. Thousands of clergy
throughout the kingdom, and hundreds in Paris were arrested
and devoted to death, under the pretext of the necessity of extir-
pating the whole of the non-juring priests. Even the convents
were turned into prisons. The national assembly made prepa-
rations for another St. Bartholomew's day in the beginning of
September, by passing a decree on the 15th of August, that the
fathers, wives, mothers or children of emigrants should not be
Buffered to remove out of the bounds of their respective com-
munes. Previous to this, a decree had been passed with a view
to divide the great estates, and to raise a multitude of families
from a condition of feudal bondage to the rank and comfort of
small proprietors ; it had been resolved that the large estates of

.§ IV.] GERMANY AND FBANCB Tlhh 1792. 377

the emigrants should be divided and sold^ and thus brought by
portions into the hands of new possessors. The decree for the
institution of a new criminal tribunal was with difficulty extorted
from the national assembly by the importunate and threatening
demands of the commune of Paris, because this tribunal was
obviously not designed for the administration either of law or
justice, but for the unscrupulous condemnation of those whom
they called enemies of the people*.

After the 12th, all those who were called aristocratic journalists
in Paris were arrested, and their printing presses transferred to
the patriots. Audouin, accompanied by a band of three hundred
and fifty patriots, traversed the whole neighbourhood of Paris, in
order to hunt out and arrest aristocrats. Domiciliary visits of all
kinds were organized on a great scale, and Fouquier Tinville^ to-
gether with some other similar persons, are said to have ordered
the violation of private correspondence to a much greater extent
than, as is well known, it has ever been practised in England,
which is so often held up as a model for the world. Similar
laws and measures were all resolved on by the council of the
commune, and were only brought to light in the necessary form
through the instrumentality of the national assembly; this
council therefore called itself the ffeneral revolutionary council'^.
The council empowered Chaumette, one of the most fanatical
of the jacobins, and who was afterwards appointed Petion's suc-
cessor in the mayoralty, to cause all suspected persons to be
judicially interrogated and arrested. By a decree :( of the legis-

* Previous to this, what was called the haut cour had been established in
Orleans. This tribunal it is true condemned some accused persons, but it
observed juilicial forms ; that appeared to the promoters of the present scheme
much too tedious, and therefore they insisted on the institution of the Tribunal
du 10 Aoiit, as a prelude to the later revolutionary tribunals. The judges of
this court were appointed by the electors of the commune, in order, as it was
said, " to take cognizance of the crimes qf the lOth of August, and other ctr-
cumstances and facts connected therewith"

t The council of the commune retained the committee of surveillance, which
was appointed before the 10th of August, and the names of the men who sat
on it m August and September afford proofs sufficient that its object was the
extirpation of everything old. Sergent the jeweller, Santerre's brother-in-law
Panis, Marat's bosom-friend Jourdeuil, Leclerc, Lienfant, Duplain, Deforgues,
Desard and Cailly, were joined as colleagues with Marat, who forced himself
into the committee without having been chosen.

X The decree passed on the 19th of August runs as follows : — " La garde
nationaie sera divis^e en quarante-huit sections arm^s. Chaque section
aura un commandant nomm^ par tons les citoyens arm^s qui la composent.
II y aura un commandant general 61u pour trois mois par tous les citoyena
composant les sections armees, leqael sera susceptible de r^-^ection.''

378 FIFTH P&ltlOD.-*-IISCOND BIVIIIION. [CH. I.

lative aaaemUy, this aimed civil power^ which was said thereby
to have received a new institution^ was converted into an instnt*
ment of every species of democratic mischief. The armed popu-
lace terrified the national assembly from without, and firom
within it was overawed by the raving and threats of those bribed
and venal clamourers, who afterwards filled the tribunes of the
national convention. The newly-elected tribunal of the 10th
of August was a prelude to those of the revolution, and the mere
mention of some decrees, which were issued by the legislative
assembly at the end of August, will show the manner in which,
and the reason why, the legislative assembly was used in order
to seize upon individuals, who were afterwards murdered without
trial or sentence in the September massacres.

First, by the resolution of the 26th of August, the clergy were
devoted to death, and on the 28th and 29th care was afterwards
taken, that no one who was disaflected to the reigning system
should escape the eyes of the demagogues. It was decreed that
domiciliary visits should be made throughout the whole king-
dom, in order to drag to light the persons suspected by the
clubs ; next, nightly searches were ordered to be made through
all the houses of Paris, and every one was threatened with death
who should ofier the least obstruction to the agents of the pro-
visional government in tracing out and discovering their ene-
mies. The commune completed this general law by a munici-
pal order. It resolved that every house should be lighted in
the evening, and no one be allowed to drive in the streets
aft;er ten o'clock. The most dreadful of all these regulations
however, and one whose scope and object was not made ob-
vious till the September days, was that by virtue of which all
needy but able-bodied men were put in requisition, because
the commime might require their services (for the September
massacre), and to whom therefore a daily allowance in money
was given as a retaining fee. As the day appointed for the
massacre approached, a feeling of universal dread was diffused
by the preparations made for the event. The barriers on
all the approaches to the city were closed ; patrols were con-
stantly on foot around the whole circuit of Paris, and all su£h-
pected persons who had an appearance of seeking safisty by
flight were detained and arrested. On the day before the perpe-
tration of the massacre, the originators of all the horrors which
had occurred since the beginning of August removed the coundi

§ IV.] OtBMAKT AND tltANOB TILL 1792. 879

of the commune and nominated a new one, which conaisted of
persons who were not disposed to shrink from any crime. This
council roused the indignation even of the obsequious legisktive
assembly. The assembly opposed its appointment, and refused
to sanction this revolutionary body ; but all to no purpose. On
the 2nd of September, the day appointed for the massacre, they
were obliged to rescind their resolution and acknowledge those
authorities which were forced upon their acceptance. Under
these auspices, the massacre of the unfortunate and innocent
prisoners was commenced on the very same day ; and what is
more hateful than all, the appearance of a judicial administration
WHS audaciously given to this unbridled license of tyranny and
revenge, or rather the unfortunate prisoners were mocked and
deceived; and those whom the barbarians designed for instant
murder, were deluded with the appearance of acquittal and libe*
ration.

We shall not dwell on the description of the scenes of blood
and murder which took place in all the prisons, large convents,
palaces and buildings in P^s from the 2nd till the 6th of Sep*
tember, and which were systematically perpetrated by murderers
instructed and paid for the purpose, as there are books in which
all this is poetically and rhetorically detailed $ what is most hor-
rible is, that Danton, as minister of justice, had devised and ar-
ranged the whole aflbir, with that cold-blooded and diplomatic
political wisdom which he had learned from Talleyrand and Mi-
rabeau. As it was quite impossible even for the tribunal of the
lOih of August to condemn whole masses of human beings, he
adopted the very original idea of collecting together a number
of people from the wine-houses, who in this night of slaughter
and death were to assume the office of judges, and in the midst
of intoxication and clamour to condemn or apparently acquit
those devoted to destruction. When the bands who were sent
out to perpetrate the massacre appeared suddenly before any of
those large buildings in which the unhappy individuals who had
been arrested since the 10th of August were confined, Danton's
pretended judges immediately took their seats. They were fur-
nished with lists of a few persons who were to be allowed to
escape, and took their seats in the hall, or in some part of the
building near the rooms in which the prisoners were confined ;
the murderers took their stand in the court The prisoners,
when not shot down in masses, as sometimes occurred, were

380 FIFTH PBBIOD.— BBCOND DIVISION. [CH.I.

brought before this mock-tribunal and briefly interrogated^ and
those who were apparently acquitted were conducted from the
presence of their judges^ as if to be set at liberty ; but were no
sooner out than they were beaten down by the murderers with
clubs and swords^ and those who were remanded were in fact
the only persons who escaped. The massacres continued with-
out interruption till the 6th, and the measure, considered as one
of cool, calculating, but ruthless policy, was no doubt efficiently
designed for the realization of the desired end, — the thorough
extirpation of the old order of things. All those who favoured
the new order of things were substantially responsible for these
horrible crimes, however violently incensed they may have been
against Danton and the murderers, as his colleagues in the mini-
stry undoubtedly were ; no retrograde step was any longer pos-
sible, for every reaction must necessarily affect those alone who
had been merely lookers-on, — those alone who had founded their
philosophical republic upon blood; for the actual murderers con-
sisted partly of convicted criminals {repris de justice) ^ obscure va«
gabonds, who were paid for their work, and whom no one knew.

Besides, by this compulsory union of all the friends of the new
order of things against the adherents of the old, and by the
extirpation of the whole monarchical generation, room and pos-
sessions were secured for the new ; and the effect was, that at the
ensuing elections no one durst give his vote to any other than
to a well-known jacobin for a member of the future national con-
vention. As to the change of the landed property of the king-
dom, the legislature, on the very day on which the massacre
commenced, declared the property of the emigrants, which had
hitherto been merely put under seizure, to be the property of
the state. The legislative assembly moreover, and even the
council of the commune, had no further share in the massacre
than that of being inactive spectators ; the conduct of the afiair
was wholly in the hands of the revolutionary committee ahready
mentioned, of whom Danton was the organ. Together with the
bands of vagabonds to whom we have referred, the chief share
in the execution fell upon the Marseillese; these were formal
bands of murderers, and the lower classes of the people of Paris
and the workmen of the faubourgs were not employed on the
occasion as executioners' assistants. At nine o'clock on the 2nd
of September, a signal was given to these bands of executioners
by means of a bell, and by three o'clock in the afternoon divisions

§ IV.] QEBMANT AND FRANCS TILL 1792. 381

of them had abeady visited the Conciergerie^ the abbey St. Ger-
main. La Force and Chfitelet, the seminary of St. Firmin, the
street of St Victor, the convent of the Carmelites, the Vaugirard,
the Bemardine convent, the Bicdtre and Salp^triere.

Every species of murderous instrument was resorted to ; in
two places crowds were fired upon with grape-shot, the dead
bodies thrown in heaps into wide and deep pits and covered
over with lime. The murders themselves, as well as the carrying
away of the dead bodies and the digging of the pits, were paid
for out of the treasury of the city. The accounts respecting the
massacre, which is there called work, the removal and carting of
the dead, are now partly at least printed, and the receipts of the
murderers, given for what they call vnyrk at theprisans^ serve as
appendices. The massacre afterwards ceased as soon as the
signal was given, as punctually as it had been commenced, and
public order was as speedily restored as it had been disturbed
on the 2nd of September. AU this is proved by documents, by
the placard which was everywhere to be read on the 7th, signed
" Potion, Mayor, and Tallien, Secretary to the Court*.'* On
the 8th, Santerre again summoned the national guard to their
usual duty, and the police again protected the lives and proper-
ties of the citizens.

The scenes to which this massacre led may be found detailed
in Thiers's * History.' We, firom our experience and accurate
knowledge of the manner in which affecting, edifying and enter-
taining books are generally written, attach little or no credit to
the anecdotes, words, speeches and scenes which are always so
minutely described. We distrust the romantic, simply because
these things are very differently reported in different places and
by different writers. An immense diversity of opinion prevails
even with regard to the number of the persons who were mas-
sacred from the 2nd till the 6th of September, and in many
cases it is no doubt greatly exaggerated. It is certain that there
were about three thousand persons in prison, of whom only some
hundreds remained alive. The jacobins, like the disciples of the
Jesuits, who promoted the massacre of St. Bartholomew, called
upon the whole kingdom to perform a similar general execution,
and commissioners were even sent for the purpose of recom-

* In this placard the then authorities of Paris admit that the people had taken
a just vengeance, but entreat them from thenceforward to leave the punish-
ment of the conspirators to the tribunals.

382 FIFTH PEBIOD.--HIBCOND DIVISION. [CH. I. § IV,

mending and enforcing it in the greater cities of the country ;
but only two or three municipalities followed the example of that
of Parisj and even these only caused a few hundreds to be mur<
dered.

The high officials who, like the minister Delessart, were to have
been tried before the high court at Orleans, were afterwards
brought to Paris, under Hie pretext of being placed before the
new tribunal of the lOih of August, and having reached Ver-
sailles on their way to the capital, during the horrible scenes in
Paris, were there massacred on the 9th. The minister of justice
himself sent the dreadful Foumier with a party of the September
bloodhounds to meet them at Versailles, and thanked the mur-
derers on their return to Paris, after the perpetration of the
deed. They assembled before the Chancery in the Place Ven-
dome, and Danton having presented himself on the balcony,
publicly approved of the murder and praised its perpetrators*.
Danton's friend and political mentor, bishop Talleyrand, on the
evening of the massacre diplomatically withdrew from the scene
of danger, charged with a diplomatic mission, Barrere, who was
at that time a judge of the court of cassation, and afterwards
oaUed the Anacreon of the guillotine, informs us in his recently
published ' M^moires,' that on the night of the massacre he
found Talleyrand in Danton's antechambers, clothed in a gro-
tesque disguise, in order to have the state seal, which was in
Danton^s keeping, attached to his passport that he might pro*
ceed to England on a dipbmatic mission.

* The mayor and magistrates of Versailles attempted Id vain to rescue from
the hands of Fonmier and his companions fifty-seven persons who had been
•ent to Orleans as state criminals, and who were pretendedly being sent to
Paris for trial, together with twenty-two persons who were in prison in Ver-
sailles. Danton said to the murderers from the balcony, " C'est le ministre
de la revolution qui vous remercie de votre louable fbreur."

OH.II«§I.] FBOM 8BPT. 1792 TILL APHIIi 1793.— PRUSSIA, S8S

CHAPTER IL

EUROPEAN WAR AND INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE FROM
SEPTEMBER 1792 TILL THE TRUCE OF UDINE, 1797.

§L

PRUSSIA^ AUSTRIA (NETHERLANDS), GBRMANT TILL THB
PLIGHT OF DUMOURIBR, AND THB PARTICIPATION OF
BNQLAND AND HOLLAND IN THB WAR.

At the moment in which the edifice of the old French state was
overthrown, and all the ofispring of the corrupt generations of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, guilty and innocent^
were buried under its ruins, the monarchs of Europe saw nothing
but blood and destruction in France, and never suspected that a
new race would spring forth from under these ruins of giant
power and Titan boldness, to whom the descendants of the nobles
of the middle ages, impoverished in mind and enervated in body^
could offer no effectual resistance. On the advance of the Pru8«
sians against Verdun, there was exhibited a universal relaxation
of the old discipline in the French armies. The emigration of
the noble oflScers had led to the same consequences in the army
as resulted in the civil department, from the sudden annihilation
of the ancient official hierarchy and the new occupation of aU
the public offices.

At first there was nothing but disorder, confusion, murder
and robbery; civilization however soon asserted and assumed
her rights ; she repelled, as she always does, the rude, the use-
less, and all that was incapable of being transformed so as to
suit the spirit of the age, but whoever was useful and educated
soon found himself in his new situation. The new magistrates
and officers, who owed their appointments wholly to their ca-
pacities and activity, did wonders, because they were fitted for
the new order of things, as it was suitable to them. Dumourier,
who, as we shall afterwards relate, was to have checked the ad-
vance of the Prussians after Lafayette's flight, followed an en*
tirely new system in opposing the methodical duke of Brunswick
in the field, and pursued it with the same boldness which he had
formerly done in the cabinet. How little Austria and Prussia^
with their distinguished officers, promoted merely on aooount of

384 FIFTH PBBIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II;

their rank, descent, intrigues and alliances, were able to meet
the struggle with the plebeian French, must be obvious as soon
as we are made acquainted with the names of the persons who
had the greatest power and influence in both states.

The councils of the allies were chiefly influenced by the French
princes, together with Bischofiswerder, and sometimes also by
Calonne. The two monarchs Frederick William II. and Francis
II. were further especially guided by three persons, who were
in the highest degree unstable in their principles and very sus-
picious from their connexions. The first was major-general
Heymann, who it is true enjoyed some distinction as the pleni-
potentiary of Louis XVI. and as such insinuated himself into the
confidence of the king of Prussia, but of whom every one knew,
that he was far more intimately connected with the commander-
in-chief of the French army (Dumourier) than with the allies,
Heymann had originally been on the most friendly and con-
fidential terms with Dumourier, Dillon and Mirabeau ; he had
served under Bouill^, and in company with him left France on
the failure of Louis's attempt to escape by flight, but was not on
that account less disinclined by his intrigues to promote the
cause of foreign powers against his native land ; like his friend
Dumourier, he therefore always kept on good terms with both
parties in order to betray both. Louis XVI. recommended him
to Frederick William, whose adviser Bischofiswerder was a friend
to all intriguers, and from him he received an appointment and
a pension. He was present and took part in all the conferences
as the representative of king Louis, and yet at the same time
rendered important service to general Dumourier when he was
minister of foreign afiairs. When Dumourier sent young Cus-
tine to Brunswick and Berlin, Heymann was the man who paved
his way, and Benoit, Dumourier's agent, who was intriguing in
Brunswick, also received hints from Heymann. Together with
this Franco-Prussian diplomatist there were two other in-
triguers, who were as little trustworthy and ungerman as he.
The one was the imperial vice-chancellor Philipp Cobenzl, who
along with S^ur had been a pupil in the school of the empress
of Russia and Potemkin. As we have already observed, Cobenzl
was educated as completely according to the old French custom
as his cousin Louis, and therefore lived and acted also like him,
and thought exactly like Talleyrand, although he had not studied
with him in Strasburg, as his cousin Louis had. The other

§ I.] FROM 8BPT* 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — PRUSSIA. 885

was the notorious count von Haugwitz, afterwards so well-known
for his unhappy influence as Prussian minister of state, and
whom the king of Prussia at this vexy time had appointed his
minister at the imperial court

Count von Haugwitz was bom in the barren neighbourhood
of Gottingen, and in his childhood surrounded Mrith pious and
sentimental persons of rank. He lived and studied at Gottin-
gen in the Klopstock times, when the bard-union was in its
glory, and cultivated all sorts of subjects, as people of distinction
are accustomed to do, without studying anything thoroughly,
because all that a man wants in high life is to shine, and by the
possession of a polished exterior and universal superficiality to
be all things to all men. Filled with the love of adventure and
extravagant in his habits, he afterwards travelled in Italy and
passed some time especially in Florence, where, being a man of
like temperament and passions Mrith the emperor Leopold, he was
highly favoured, and imbibed that spirit of Machiavellianism at its
very source, which he afterwards applied in the Prussian cabinet
when associated with the Marchese Lucchesini, who was bom in
Lucca. In Italy he was accompanied by his young wife, who was
a daughter of general Tauenzien ; she was however afterwards
separated from him, because he proved as faithless in his matri-
monial as he did in his political conduct. With what foresight
Lavater acted when he made some reserve as to the leading
characteristics of his mind, in the extravagant compliment
which he paid to his bust I Lavater delivered one of his oracular
opinions on Haugwitz's physiognomy, which is sufficiently cha-
racteristic both of the physiognomist and the statesman : The
count, he remarked, in spite of the rmus of immoral indication
which his physiognomy presents, has still the head of a Christ.

Without professing to be oracular, we shall endeavour to show
the accordance between this declaration of the Zurich prophet
and the facts of history, by saying that Haugwitz combined an
agreeable countenance with a pleasing disposition, — ^the well-
known clever cheerfulness of a profligate, with the enthusiasm of a
Lavater and the mysticism of a Bischofiswerder. It is clear that
he was bom to be the dear friend and companion of Frederick
William II. and the countess Lichtenau, and the sharer of those
amusements and pleasures with which she surrounded the king,
as well as of the mysteries and phantasmagoria with which others
occupied his attention* The king's mistress succeeded (in the

VOL. VI, 2 c

386 FIFTH PERIOD,— SECOND DIVISION. [CH, !!•

end of May) in having Haugwitz appointed Prussian minister
at the imperial court* In this character he entered into consul-
tations with Heymann and Cobenzl} after the opening of the
campaign^ and from the very first showed himself to be as light-
minded and unstable in political affairs as he was licentious in
his private life. From this moment he formed a member of
that triumvirate which for fourteen years drove Prussia hither
and thither^ as a prelude to its temporary fall. He might be
called the Prussian Calonne^ had he possessed the capacities and
talents of the Frenchman.

HaugwitZj Lucchesini and Lombard formed a diplomatic tri-
umvirate in the cabinet, whose intrigues were in the highest de-
gree injurious. The duke of Brunswickj as commander-in-
chief of the allied army, by no means fulfilled the expectations
which had been formed of him, in consequence of the reputation
which he had enjoyed since the seven years' war, gained by the
methodical service of the Prussian cane and drill ; his character
was formed on the model of the times of Pompadour, of which
Marmontel and mistresses formed the ingredients. The Ger-
mans of that period, who so willingly interested themselves with
the history of the mistresses of their princes, had in &et much
to relate respecting his, although he M^as not so destitute of
shame as Charles Theodore and others, who introduced strangers
into an apartment which was adorned by their portraits* Among
the various mistresses of the duke, the good and loyal Germans
took a particular interest in an Italian lady named Bianconi, and
Miss von Hartfeld, of whom the latter was in some measure i^
cognised as his wife by the duchess herself, and employed to
guard him from the toils of persons of worse reputation. Not-
withstanding this, the duke was a man of many admirable qua-
lities and of much more penetration than Frederick William,
whom he flattered, and like a courtier indulged in his humours,
without however relinquishing his own views or opinions. This
produced the most injurious consequences in the conduct of the
war against France, because plans were pursued sometimes to
please the king, and sometimes in accordance with the duke's
convictions. In the previous decennium he altogether disap-
proved of the resolution to reinstate the stadtholder of Holland
by force of arms, and expressed his disapprobation; and yet
when the king insisted on it, he not only agreed to the expedi-
tion, but consented to take the commandt In the same way,

§ It] FROM »PTf 1793 TILI« APRIL 1793t*-PBU8BIA. 387

when the crusade against France was undartaken^ he at first
determined carefully to pursue the old^ tedious^ methodical stra^
tegy of the seven years' war; but afterwards^ in order to please
the king, be adopted plans of which he did not approve, ap-
peared as if be would make a bold and rapid advance, and then
returned to his old method of delay.

In polilics, the duke suffered himself on the one hand to be
ensnared by Dumourier, and on the other from courtly weakness
signed bis name to an insane manifesto, drawn up by a creature
of the miserable Calonne and bis count d'Artois, and of which he
himself never approved. The natural consequence was, that he
repented of what he had done, that his actions did not corre-
spond with his declarations, and that in the whole course of his
conduct he merely adopted half-measures. Moreover, it is ob-
vious from Gothe's account of this campaign, that the king,
prince Louis Ferdinand, who still behaved like a child in 1806,
and the throng of Sibarites, who continually swarmed around
the person of the monarch, uniformly hampered and obstructed
the duke, and that nothing was adequately provided for. The
anti- Austrian spirit of the seven years' war, to which the duke
owed his reputation, made him more inclined to lend a favour-
able ear to the French emissaries, who abounded in all direc^
tions, than to the Austrians. Neither Wurmser nor Clairfait
was satisfied with the duke ; a fact which is proved by the
correspondence of the two generals. Clairfait was placed under
his orders on the march into Champagne, and his letters
prove that he never supposed the duke to be really serious
in the design of advancing rapidly upon Paris. He was in*
oessant in his requests to be allowed at least to press forward
with the Austrians, when the duke exhibited timidity and hesi-
tation respecting the employment of the Prussians. The duke
indeed gave full scope to intrigues, instead of fighting, and car-»
ried on an indirect correspondence with Dumourier, instead of
putting himself in immediate intercourse with him.

The Austrian army in the Netherlands, which could not be
celled numerous, and which was to act independently of the
main body under the duke, was commanded by one of those
princes, who make the Austrian army completely useless in the
presence of an enemy. They stand at the head and enjoy all
the advantages, whilst the really able officers fill the lower ranks,
' and the brave soldiers are harassed to no purpose,

2c2

388 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH, II.

The prince who^ in name at least, was commander of the
army in the Netherlands was the duke of Saxe-Teschen^ and as
if it were not enough that one prince should lend his name to
what other and abler men devised^ the good emperor reserved
the chief command for himself in person. Two other Austrian
divisions, which appeared on the Rhine, were likewise com-
manded by two princes, whose adjutants and staff subordinates,
as is usually the case, were obliged to do their best. The one
division, which was already collected, was under the command
of the prince von Hohenlohe-Kirchberg, and the other was re-
cruited and assembled in the Breisgau by prince Esterhazy*
The last-mentioned force was to be joined by the prince of
Cond^ and his emigrants. Thus an army of mercenaries, com-
posed of men drilled by the help of the cane, without a particle
of patriotism or national feeling, without any hope of gaining
glory in the field, or obtaining promotion and honour by their
valoiur, and commanded by princes, nobles and generals of the
seven years' war and by invalids, was opposed by an army of
Frenchmen inspired with a fanatical love of freedom, and im-
pelled to action by the love of glory, patriotism, and the rewards
of victory. It will therefore excite as little surprise, that the
allies were victorious only until the old French army was by
degrees disbanded, or that they were conquerors whilst the new
one was being formed, as that they were beaten as soon as the
new levies took the field.

We have already stated, that the first constitutional ministry
of the king of France met the threats of the emperor and the
German princes by oi^anizing three armies, which were com-*
manded by three generals, two of whom, Rochambeau and
Luckner, belonged wholly to the old school, and the third, La-
fayette, half to the new. When Rochambeau, who was to com-
mand the northern army, and at the same time, as the oldest
general, to have the supreme command of the whole, had received
his dismissal, Luckner was called from Alsace to the northern
army, and only a small force remained around Strasburg. This
body was first commanded by lieutenant-general Lamorli^re,then
by Yictor Broglio, and finally, when BrogUo proved disloyal
to the new government in order to save the monarchical con-
stitution, by the duke de Biron. Lafayette was in command of
the third army on the Moselle, when Dumourier succeeded in
having himself appointed as adviser to the aged and weak Luck-

§ I.] FROM BBPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793.—PRUS8IA. S89

ner^ whom he speedily drove from his command and replaced.
Dumourier's first care on joining the army was to avail himself
of the influence of the political party with whom he had formed
an alliance^ as the sure path to fortune, in order to secure Luck-
ner's command for himself. This was indeed the best that could
have been done under the circumstances of the time, because
Dumourier was in the vigour of life and a skilful general, whilst
Luckner was become weak and incapable from age.

In order to secure his object, Dumourier was obliged secretly
to intrigue against Lafayette, and particularly against Arthur
Dillon, with both of whom he came immediately into collision.
The latter was an older lieutenant-general than JSumourier, and
like Lafayette was a friend and defender of the monarchical con-
stitution ; Dumourier himself therefore, with all his efforts, can-
not conceal the fact of his having intrigued with the jacobins
against both. These disputes between Lafayette, Dillon and
Dumourier soon led to an open quarrel. Luckner exchanged
commands with Lafayette, upon whom consequently devolved
the defence of the north-eastern frontier, whilst the former went
to Lorraine and established his head-quarters in Metz. Du-
mourier was to remain with the army of the north, and conse-
quently to serve under Lafayette. He declared however ex-
pressly that he would have nothing to do either with him or
Lafayette. He even refused obedience. He was then indeed
again placed under Luckner's command, but in his new relation
he became insolent and overbearing, relying upon the support of
the jacobins, who were at that time more powerful than the
king. Luckner, as well as Lafayette, was thoroughly monarchi-
cal in his views, and both repeatedly applied to the minister and
the king to remove Dumourier from the army, as a man of well-
known anti-monarchical principles.

Dumourier, as is well known, without a blush afterwards sold
himself to the English and to the royalists of the old school, and
remained their servile tool during the whole of his life ; on re-
ferring to these disputes however, he informs us without scruple,
that he had contrived to maintain himself by republican cabals
alone. Instead of the king and his ministers, he addressed
himself to the president of the national assembly, in order that
the majority of deputies, which consisted of republicans, might
thus be afforded an opportunity of taking up his cause. They
adopted this course with the greater zeal, as firom the 20th of

390 FIFTH PERIOD.-^BBOOND DIVISION. [CH. XI«

June5 Lafayette had become an object of mispicion^ and great
fears were entertained^ that at the head of hia army, and sup-
ported by constitutional addresses from the majority of the de«
partments, he would carry into effect what he had not been able
to accomplish at the head of the national guard in Paris on the
28th and 29th of June. Dumourier had contrived by degrees
to rid himself of his dependence on Luckner, although to all
appearance he still retdned a subordinate command^ assumed
the air of a jacobin general, and as a jacobin, Louis Philippe also,
son of the duke of Orleans, served under him. Both showed
every inclination, in case of necessity, to frustrate all those plans
which were devised by Dillon and Lafayette in fiivour of monar-
chy* Dumourier plainly announces this fact in his Memoirs^
when he says, '^ the camp which he then occupied at Maulde
was wholly devoted to Dumourier, whilst those of Maubeuge and
Pont sur Sambre were thoroughly in the interest of Lafayette/'
After the events of the 10th of August, Lafayette refused to
allow the army under his command to swear the republican oath
founded on freedom and equality $ Dillon at first also resolved
to pursue the same course, but afterwards changed his mind.
Lafayette not only refused the republican oath, but commanded
his soldiers to renew their former oath of fidelity to the consti-
tution. Dumourier again renounced his obedience, and caused
the new republican oath to be administered. This circumstance
contributed greatly to the failure of Lafayette's attempt to save
the king and the monarchy by the aid of his army and the
assistance of the numerous departmental authorities, whose
opinions were strongly monarchical. In this attempt also he
showed himself to be precisely the same man which he afterwards
proved during the whole course of his life,-^-«n honourable and
honest man, destitute of all political talents, which though often
immoral are for that very reason wholly practical, and incapable
of coming to a bold resolution on any sudden emergency. He also
was wholly deficient in that great quality of a ruler, which was
inborn in Buonaparte, — the power of employing every man to do
the duty for which he is fit, and of making himself the centre of
the selfish efforts of thousands. Instead of having everything
ready on the 12th and sitddenly advancing on the capital, he
waited till the 20th before he called upon his army to march to
Paris; but he had been then previously surrounded and immeshed
by Dumourier's agents and his army corrupted^ and it became

§ I.] FROM SBPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793.— PRUSSIA. 391

a verjr easy task for the republicans with Dumourier's aid to
purify the army from the old nobility*.

The jacobins had sent Couthon^ a paralytic advocate, to the
army of the north,— the same man who afterwards formed one of
the triumvirate with Robespierre and St. Just during the reign
of terror. Couthon acted in concert with Dumourier, and held
in his hand the threads of all the jacobin affiliations ; Dumou-
rier and the jacobins took their measures so well, that Lafayette
suddenly found himself forsaken on all hands. Tn order not to
ftll a sacrifice to the thirst for bloody which had become a ruling
passion after the 10th of August, he felt compelled to make his
escape from the country. On the news of his resolution to march
to Psjis, and in consequence of the declarations of many depart-
mental administrations in favour of his views, the national assem-
bly had issued a decree of impeachment against him and his
friends, which was much the same as a capital condemnation,
and he therefore sought to withdraw himself from this revolu-
tionary justice by surrendering as a prisoner of war. Lafayette
and the whole of his general staff, consisting of twenty-four
persons, passed into the Austrian territories, where, as was to
be expected, they were detained. Immediately afterwards, how-
ever, the monarchical governments of Austria and Prussia pur-
sued a course of conduct towards Lafayette and his friends, who
had sat with him in the constituent assembly, — colonel Bureau
de Puzy, and generals Alexander Lameth and Latour Mauboui^,
— which was the model of that followed by the jacobins during
the reign of terror.

In order to please the emigrants, these four former deputies
were treated as state criminals, and especially Lafayette ; they
were dragged about in Austria and Prussia to various prisons f
in a manner disgraceful to justice and humanity, most scan-
dalously treated, and detained as prisoners for five years, contrary
to all law and justice, till Buonaparte at length compelled the
emperor to liberate these benefactors of the French nation.
Victor Broglio, and at the same time with him colonel Dessaix,
who afterwards became so renowned as a general under Moreau
on the Rhine, under Buonaparte in Egypt, and on the field of

* The fullest accounts of Lafayette's undertaking may be found collected
and arranged in the appendix to the last edition of Dumourier's ' Vie et
M^moires,^ vol. ii. note G. p. 445, &c.

f To Weself Magdeburg^ Glatz, Neisse and Olmiitz.

S92 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BCOND DIYI8I0I^« [CH. II*

Marengo ; Caffarelli^ who was an admirable artilleiy officer^ and
Dietrich^ mayor of Strasburg^ all attempted, but with like want
of success as Lafayette, to employ their great influence with the
army, and the general esteem in which they were held, for the
maintenance of the monarchical constitution. They soon found
themselves forsaken ; Broglio and Dietrich were beheaded, whilst
Cafiarelli and Dessaix fled for a short time from the country.

Dumourier, having assisted in the attainment of their objects,
by their aid realized his own. He indeed inwardly laughed at
the republicans and their republic, kept up a constant connexion
with foreign powers, and wove intrigues, which saved him from
the destiny of Lafayette, when his projects made shipwreck as
those of the former had previously done. Honourable men w*ere
thrown into prison and chains, whilst the European diploma-
tists treated the cunning traitors with forbearance or respect !
Luckner was for a time pushed aside without being predsely
dismissed, and the division under his command transferred to
general Kellermann, who was then subordinate to Dumourier, as
the younger in service. Had the allies sooner crossed the fron^
tiers and pushed rapidly forward, they might have derived great
advantage from the misunderstandings and disputes between
the constitutional and republican officers ; but they delayed till
all the constitutionalists had been driven out, and a man of
Dumourier's genius, talents and knowledge was engaged in the
organization of a completely new army, consisting of citizens,
and not merely of mercenaries.

The allied army of Austrians and Prussians, under the com-
mand of the duke of Brunswick, and which he had threatened
to lead to Paris for the destruction of the city, if any injury was
done to king Louis, remained quietly in their camp near Treves
till the 10th of August, and the Sardinian army on the Isere
and Var, against which the French had sent a number of troops
under general Montesquieu, did the same. After the 10th of
August, the duke, who had been so long exhorted, entreated and
spurred on by the king, broke up his camp, and with hesita-
tion and fear, half indignant and half protesting, began his march*
It will therefore excite no wonder that his advance was incredi-
bly slow. He only marched 120 miles in the space of twenty
days, and on the 18th, when he thought of ordering Clairfait to
join, his army had never once been together. At length he col-
lected his whole forces at Tiercelet, and in company with Clair-

( !•] FROM 8SPT« 1792 TILL APRIL l793.<— PBU88IA. S93

fidt proceeded further. Clairfait gave many proofs of his im-
patience at the slow progress of the allies^ although he was
wholly unacquainted with the Prussian intrigues.

The duke could not be prevailed on to relinquish his metho*
dical course, but continued to hesitate and delay, even when the
flight of general Lafayette and his staff had deprived the whole
French army of all its commanders and experienced officers, and
the easy conquest of the small fortress of Longwy appeared to
justify the splendid hopes of the emigrants. Even the declared
will of the king proved insufficient to induce the duke to yield
the smallest points of the strategical wisdom of the seven years'
war ; Dumourier himself pronounces this opinion, and at the time
when he wrote and published his Memoirs, he had every reason
to spare the duke. He censures the delays which took place on
this occasion without reserve, particularly because the circum-
stances at that time were highly favourable to the Prussians.
They had experience of this also before Verdun. Not only the
numerous body of royalists among the inhabitants, but a portion
of the garrison also opposed the commandant, who was desirous
of defending the fortress, and compelled him to surrender after
only fifteen hours' bombardment. The duke even then con-
tinued to persevere in his system. He called to his council all
the princes in the army, who, according to their whole nature,
are conservative, and in this council he appealed to all the sons
of Teut, who are well known for their preference for the learned,
deep, methodical, traditionary and solid : how was it possible that
his systematic delays should not have met with approbation?

In the council of war called by the duke, all the tacticians of
his old army, afterwards annihilated at Jena, but then still boast-
ing, and among the rest the hereditary prince of Hohenlohe and
the princes of Nassau and Baden, were solidly instructed and
convinced by the duke in a conference five hours long, that the
whole course of proceedings must be in accordance with the
usual systematic tardiness of operation ; they ail voted for its
adoption. The duke indeed had afterwards the vexation to find,
that the two Frenchmen who were present at the council, generals
Lambert and Pouilly, and the Russian ambassador, were not only
not of his opinion, but had also convinced the king of Prussia
that they were right. The king then expressly declared himself
against this German irresolution, and rapidity of movement was
pressed upon the duke as a duty; but even in executing the

S94 FIFTH PBRIOD* — SECOND DIVIIIOK. [OH. lU

king's desire he still found means and pretences enough for de-
lay. Whoever wishes to be fully informed of the order^ or rather
disorder^ of this systematic expedition ^ what the noble and distin-
guished generals and prince Louis Ferdinand did and how they
did it; will find the whole depicted in lively colours by Gothe
in the last part of his quasi-biography. We refer particularly to
him^ because he is always polished and sparing where we from
principle would be sharp and severe.

The march of the Prussian army was to be directed through
QiAlons to PariS; and must therefore be conducted through
Champagne^ whidi is almost impassablft in autiann on account
of the depth of the roads ; and in order to reach this province
they were obliged to cross the thick wood of Argonne^ through
which there are only five high roads or passes. Dumourier had
availed himself of the tardiness of the Prussians to occupy all
these passes from the Ist till the 5th of September. The Prus-
sian army^ together with the contingents of Hesse-Casael and
Austria^ has been stated at 70,000 strong, but it was in want of
supplies. The French too were badly provided with stores^ be-
cause they had no magazines, and were merely furnished with
assignats instead of money. The Prussians suffered severely in
an unhealthy neighbourhood, where there was a complete defi-
ciency of good water, from bad weather and bad roads, and would
also have been threatened in the rear, had the duke de Biron
obeyed Dumourier's repeated commands and proceeded from
Strasburg down the Rhine. Notwithstanding all this, the duke
of Brunswick remained true to his system of delay ; for he did
not, as every one wished, even take the pass of Grand Pre in a
few days by storm, near which Dumourier was posted, but
avoided it by a circuitous march. He was thereby detained at
an unfavourable season, in an impracticable neighbourhood^ and
his people worn out with marching.

When at last the second pass near CMne pcpuleM was taken
possession of, Clair&it seized upon that by Croiw au bais by
storm. Dumourier it is true despatched general Chazot to oc-
cupy the pass, but Clairfait returned with reinforcements, drove
Chazot firom his position, and cut off him and his division wholly
from the corps under Dumourier. Clairfait was at that time
convinced that Dumourier himself with his 15,000 men at Grand
Pr€ might be completely surrounded^ and wished to make an
immediate attack. The duke however, instead of profiting by

$ !«] FBOM MPT. 179s TILL APRIL l79S.«-PftUI8IA. 895

the llivourftble moment, instead of attacking, or allowing Clairftit
to march, sent major Maasenbach to treat with Dumourier, and
the major, who thought himself very clever at intriguing, suf*
fered himself to be deceived by general DuvaL Dumourier
proved more cunning than the Prussians, precisely becwae they
always wished to be the most prudent: he extricated himadf
from his difficult position, united his army, which had been pre*
viously widely scattered, without being molested by the enemy,
and on the i6th of September was stronger than before in hia
camp at St. Menehould.

At this time the contemptible triumvirate of fkvourites of the
king of Prussia's ruling mistress, that is, the three unprincipled
diplomatists, who had neither patriotism, sense of justice, nor
moral integrity, as they proved in 1805 and 1806, had made
themselves masters of the helm of Prussian politics and deceived
the king, who was at that time serious in his warlike purposes^
These three persons, who in the present century plunged Prus-
sia into an abyss by their intrigues, at that time also prevailed
upon the duke of Brunswick to pay no attention to Clairfidt^s
urgent importunity, to intrigue instead of fighting, and to
suffbr himself to be shamefiilly deceived and deluded by Du-
mourier. The pure count Haugwitz had just become a cabinet
minister, and Schulenberg been obliged to set out for Berlin on
account of Polish afikirs ; the former alone therefore, with hia
two worthy colleagues, the Marchese Lucchesini and private
secretary Lombard, conducted the secret consultations in the
Prussian camp. This noble triumvirate drew major-general
Heymann, a creature of Dumourier's, into their council of in-
trigues, and by his mediation kept an agent alwajrs with Du-
mourier, whom the latter contrived to detain with repeated as-
surances of his inclination to help the king of France, which he
concealed under the mask of jacobinism* By means of this
channel, Dumourier kept the duke so long in suspense at the
decisive moment, till it became equally dangerous for the Prus-
sians either to advance or retreat, on account of the roads, the
weather, the season and the means of providing for the army,
and because a general rising of the people had now been orga-
nized over the whole country.

The man who carried the messages backwards and forwards
between the Prussian triumvirate and Dumourier was neither a
Frenchman nor a Prussian, but something of both; he was a

396 FIFTH PERIOD, — 8BOONO DIVISION. [OH. II.

native of NeufchateL Dumourier succeeded in deceiving him so
completely, that the triumvirate, through the duke, delayed all
undertakings in the field, in the expectation of Dumourier's de-
claring against the republicans, tiU on the 20th of September
Kellermann^s reinforcements arrived. The whole state of things
was completely changed by Kellermann^s arrival, for the French
army, without reckoning the reserve in Chfilons, then amounted
to 50,000 men. When it became at length clear that the Prus*
sian intriguers had been overreached by the French one, who
notwithstanding contrived to keep up his intercourse with them,
the king of Prussia insisted upon trying the issue of a battle.
The duke and the triumvirate however relied upon Dumourier's
hints and wished to venture nothing. Because the king so
wished it however, the army was drawn up in order of battle at
Valmy ; it was plain that there was no intention of a serious
engagement, because it was supposed the desired object could
be more certainly gained by cabals. The Prussians contented
themselves with keeping up a continuous cannonade against the
French and killing a few thousand men, but afterwards with*
drew to their camp without attempting to mount the heights.
The issue of this delusive engagement was turned to account in
a masterly manner by the French. They reported throughout
the whole kingdom, and it is yet boastingly announced by all
their historians, that general Kellermann, by his firmness on the
heights of Vahny, had frustrated the whole expedition of the
allies; we however are now fully acquainted with the whole his-
tory of the cabals between the duke, the cabinet triumvirate, and
the very equivocal commander-in-chief of the French army.

Dumourier contrived to combine a second intrigue with the
first, because he knew the duke was altogether disinclined to
advance ; it was necessary however to conceal the intrigues, and
the afibir was conducted by Heymann through a Neufchatel
agent. The agent reported that the whole afiair must be ma-
naged by conversation, in order that there might be no written
proofs, and that no official correspondence might be necessary ;
with this view Lombard, on the 2l8t of September, contrived to
&11 into the hands of the French. He had then a conference
with Dumourier, was again set at liberty on the 22nd, and re-
turned to the Prussian camp in company with the chief leader
of the desperadoes who had stormed the Tuileries on the 10th
of August ; in the camp the further negotiations were to be ver-

§ !•] FBOM 8BPT* 1792 TILL APRIL 179S.-^PBUS8IA. 397

bally completed. Dumourier's adjutant^ who accompanied the
secretaiy ot the Prussian cabinet, in order to carry on the in-
trigue with the two other members of the triumvirate and with
the duke, was no other than sergeant Westermann, who since
the 10th of August had been promoted to the rank of colonel,
and prudently selected by Dumourier as his adjutant He came
under the pretence of effecting an exchange between Lombard
and a Frenchmaa belonging to the civil service who had been
detained as a prisoner ; the real object however was to dissuade
the king of Prussia from venturing a battle. This was to be
effected by Westermann's arranging the chief points with Hey-
mann alone, who was still at that time a Prussian major-general,
whilst the duke of Brunswick and the triumvirate worked upon
the king by all sorts of means to prevail upon him to enter into
negotiations with Dumourier.

Westermann and Heymann had no sooner come to an agree*
ment on the leading points, than the triumvirate induced the
king to consent that Heymann and colonel Mannstein should
be immediately sent to the French quarters, and they then con*
eluded the truce which had been previously agreed on, on the
very same day (22nd of September). During the whole course
of this affidr, Dumourier played his part in a most masterly
manner ; he assumed the appearance to the Prussians, whom
his friend Heymann helped to persuade, of being desirous every
instant of betraying his protector Danton and the jacobins, and
at the very same time promoted all their plans and views in the
most zealous manner ; he even availed himself of one of the most
fanatical democrats, the companion of the frantic Rossignol, to
conduct his negotiations with the ultra-monarchical Prussians.
Whoever wishes to become acquainted with Dumourier's diplo*
matic talents, his complete mastery in that system of sophistry
now prevaiUng, — ^in the art of changing lies into truth by cun-
ning devices and polished phraseology, must study his Memoirs,
and there see the manner in which he represents all the topics
on which we have here touched. With all the art and ingenuity
of the most experienced pickpocket, he abstracts the truth from
the very grasp of the reader and substitutes lies, without our
being able to say in the proper sense of the word, either that he
directly lies, or intentionally puts forward what is false, as if it
were really true.

Dumourier contrived to deceive the king ot Prussia till the

898 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH« II,

decisive moment by the expression of a desire to maintain the
monarch and monarchy in France; the convention no sooner
proclaimed the republic, than the king was forced to believe that
he had been deluded and overreached. He therefore imme-
diately demanded a cessation of the truce and ordered a renewal
of hostilities; in this he was joined both by the princes and g^
neral Clairfait, but even in this emergency Dumourier still found
means to avail himself of the methodical duk; and the triumvi-
rate. The latter were desirous of throwing the whole burthen
of the war upon Austria^ and making Prussia great at the ex-
pense of Germany, This admits of no doubt, because Massen-
bacb, the duke^s confidential agent, who had been sent to Kel-
lermann, unhesitatingly admitted the fact in the presence of the
duke of Orleans' son, whom Dumourier had at that time placed
under the orders of Kellermann. The duke and Lucchesini
then assisted Dumourier to deceive the king. They persuaded
him to give an audience to general Thouvenot, a friend and con-
fidential agent of Dumourier, on the subject of a pretended
military convention, by which, without any suspicion on the
part of the king, preparations were to be made for the retreat,
which he so strongly disapproved. The king had no sooner
given his consent and Dumourier made secret promises, which
he neither would nor could fulfil, than a convention was signed,
with whose secret articles even general Kellermann was not made
acquainted. By virtue of this convention, the Prussians were to
evacuate the whole of the French territory within twenty days,
and it was stipulated that they were neither to be annoyed in
their passage over the Meuse, on the French territory, nor beyond
the fi^ntiers ; and on their retreat and withdrawal the fortresses
which they had conquered were to be restored to the French.

This convention, the confirmation of which had been expressly
reserved for the respective governments, was agreeable to neither,
and was equally rejected by the king of Prussia on the one band,
and the committee of foreign afiaire appointed by the conven-
tion on the other. The agreement was nevertheless completed,
for Dumourier and Lucchesini were people who always found
means to work out their designs. Their object howev^ eould
not be fully attained by the duke and the triumvirate, with which
in feet Dumourier was well pleased, because in this way he
escaped from the obligation of his secret promise in favour of the
augqientatioa of FruasiA. The king of Prusaia proved unwilling

§ I.] FROM SSrr. 1792 TILL APRIL l793.«- PRUSSIA. S98

to sacrifice the Austrians^ as the intriguers proposed^ or what is
the same thing, treacherously to relinquish the whole of Belgium^
and therefore announced the cessation of the truce as early as
the 27th ; the convention, in its democratic violence, declared
that it would hear nothing of negotiations till the French terri-
tory was completely evacuated. The diplomatists and Danton
and his friends however succeeded by masterly management in
carrying through their cause, in spite of the king of Prussia and
the convention. Danton's friends and those of the duke of Or-*
leans, whose representatives with the army, Westermann and
Louis Philippe, helped to bring about the convention which
Thouvenot afterwards concluded, succeeded in giving the victory
to Dumourier's diplomatic cunning over the will of the conven-*
tion. Danton and his party obtained a resolution in the con-
vention, that Prieur, of the department of Mame, Carra and
Sillery, all of whom were daily companions of the duke of Or<-
leans, should be -sent with unlimited powers to Dumourier's
camp ; and it was they who prevented Kellermann, who was not
in the secret, from profiting by the complete relaxation of disci-
pline in the Prussian army to efiect its destruction.

The Prussians, and, as it is said, even their king, expected to
have been led into battle on the 29th, the truce having been de*
clared at an end by the Idng's command on the 27th ; instead of
that however they received orders to retreat on the 30th. This
would have proved utterly destructive had not the commis-
sioners of the convention spared the Prussians in order that they
might be able to plunder Belgium. The sufierings to wbioh the
Prussians were exposed firom the season, bad roads, want of dis-
cipline and insufficient supplies, may be best learned from
Gdthe's account of his adventures, and especially because his
view was not historical, but purely poeticaU Whilst the rest of
these disordered troops attempted to reach the Rhine and to
gain the right bank of the river, a division remained at Treves,
for KeUermann had received a hint not to attack them there.
The Prussians having marched up the Rhine, in order to drive
Custine out of Frankfort and Mayenoe, Beumonville made an
unsuccessful attack upon the position at Treves and was repulsed
with great loss.

The cabals which had been commenced by the biumvirate in
Valmy, with a view to induce the king of Prussia to come to an
undentanding with the French at the cost of the Germans, were

400 FIFTH PERIOD*— SECOND DIVISION* [gH« II.

also afterwards continued and carried on more vigorously^ be^
cause the countess of Lichtenau^ the king's mistress^ who had
been at Spa, came to the camp and made common cause with
the triumvirate, in order to cause a breach in the alliance be->
tween Prussia and Austria. There were two persons who took
part in the attempt to draw Prussia at that time nearer to France^
and to separate it from Austria, the hierarchy and feudality, who
were influenced by motives very different from those of the king's
mistress and the triumvirate. The one was Lebrun, who had
formerly worked for Maupeou the chancellor in the reign of
Louis XV., and at a later period became a high dignitary and
duke under the empire, but at the time of which we speak was
republican minister of foreign affairs in Paris ; the other was the
noble and free-minded flerr von Dohm, who was then residing
at Bonn as Prussian minister to the court of Cologne. Nothing
could be made of all the intrigues which were there woven^
because the king could not be persuaded to acquiesce in dis*
loyalty to his allies, but his diplomatists then laid the founda-
tion on which they afterwards built ; it is no part of our object
or duty however to follow the course of their cabals beyond their
immediate and obvious effects. From that moment forward^
when the Prussians left Champagne in the autumn of 1792, the
movement commenced in France which then finally roused the
people to a sense of those national rights which had been lost
in the middle ages, and spread in three directions over those
provinces which bore the oppression of feudality, hierarchy and
ministerial irresponsibility as impatiently as France. The first of
these provinces was that part of the left bank of the Rhine which
still continues free from the middle ages, because, like the Prus*
sian portion, it has not again obtained back a share of it by a sta-
tute of nobility and Jesuitical clergy or Prussian historical jurists*
It was at first merely the strip extending from the fix)ntiers of
Alsace to a little above Mayence which was delivered from the
ancient evils. The second of the provinces was Savoy, the third
Belgium ; the whole three were however afterwards united vrith
France by the French republicans, and therefore injured in their
most sacred rights, and from free citizens of their own state with
their own language and their own customs, changed into com-
pulsory Frenchmen and ruled by natives of France.

In order to comprehend the enthusiasm with which the irrup-
tion of a French corps was received in September 1792 in the

§ !•] PEOM SEPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793.— GERMANY. 401

German districts of the Upper and Middle Rhine^ we must re-
member that from Alsace to Diisseldorf the abuses of the Ger-
man imperial nobles^ of the ecclesiastical and secular despotic
and embarrassed princes^ of the convents and abbeys, of the
cities and their corroded institutions and privileged magi-
strates, were quite incredible. Innumerable jurisdictions of im-
perial knights and counts, convents, foundations and univer-
sities, and among these that of Heidelberg in particular, ruled
over villages and towns, and lived in a state of continual quarrel
with the small princes and dukes, with the bishops, electors and
archbishops within whose territories their petty lordships were
included. The industrious citizens and peasants were com-
pletely degraded' and treated with the greatest contempt by the
privileged gentlemen, and given up to be plundered by the
amtmann, or in the Palatinate by the landvogt, and to be whipped
or put in the stocks by the bailifis. The duties and taxes were
certainly much less than after their incorporation with France,
or than they are at the present day ; but this profited the citizens
or peasants nothing, especially because no kind of work could
be done in consequence of the time devoted to the mere ringing
of church and convent bells, to festivals and pilgrimages.

We shall cast a glance on the condition of the larger states on
the Rhine, in order to show with what joy the French must have
been received in these provinces, had they, as they really pro-
fessed, and as George Forster and some of the clubists in
Mayencc actually believed, brought freedom, without, as they
did, depriving the Germans of their nationality, which every
honourable man values higher than his life. We expressly omit
all notice of the state of affairs in the innumerable small princi-
palities and imperial free counties, lordships, and ecclesiastical
foundations, because this would involve the necessity of going
too deeply into those intricate questions of German law, which
still continue to be so dear to our jurists and university scholars.
We shall not even mention the eternal disputes which were
carried on in Worms and Spires, sometimes between the chap-
ters and the municipality, and sometimes between one or other of
these and the bishops ; we shall pass over the pitiful condition of
things in Deux Fonts, the impoverishing of the house of Lei-
ningen, the wretchedness of Nassau with its numerous divisions,
and the French feelings and habits of the olden time in Kim,
Kyrburg, &c., and only very slightly refer to the conduct pur-

VOL. VI. 2 D

402 FIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CU. II.

sued by this miserable and contemptible race of rulers in the
war. No one ever thought of helping to extinguish the con-
flagration of his neighbour's house till his own was absolutely on
fire, as appears from the history of the electors, who could and
ought to have kept off the French from the Rhine.

That part of the Rhine provinces which was most immediately
threatened by the French assembled in Alsace could have been
the more easily defended by Charles Theodore, elector of the Ba-
varian palatinate, as Mannheim was at that time fortified on both
banks of the Rhine; but from his youth up, previous to 177B
in Mannheim, and subsequent to that year in Munich, Charles
Theodore had been the mere toy of concubines and priests. His
nobility and favourites played a scandalous game in the Pala-
tinate, sold all the public employments, and exhibited unbounded
insolence and audacity. The public offices were either sold
to the highest bidder or hereditary in certain families, which
was even true of the professorships in Heidelberg ; the pro-
testants were persecuted and oppressed, all access to the elector
in Munich barred, and Obemdorf ruled in the Palatinate. As
Charles Theodore did not wish to be burthened with any of
the toils of government, his ministers and even his landvogts
ruled like despotic governors, and fi^m 1 786, every man who
entertained or ventured to express a liberal idea was persecuted
as one of the illuminati. This last remark is particularly true of
Bavaria proper, where the people were and are so &r behind the
age as to have no care except for mere physical, or, as they are
now called, material interests, and were ready to bum any man
as an arch-heretic who spoke a word concerning the necessity of
mental cultivation or in favour of mental freedom. It is some-
what remarkable that the Bavarians, who have so recently raised
an insurrection on account of beer, were at that time also dis-
satisfied with the landed proprietors, who were decked with their
ribands and stars, and their privileged tribunals, because they
forced them to pay too high for their favourite beer, and raised
a loud outcry against /)^a^an/« and brewers tvith stars*

The elector moreover was constantly devoted to the policy of
the court of Vienna, and till his death remained the mere play-
thing of Austrian cabals, Italian women, and of baron Thugut,
who managed both. At this period he showed himself miserably
undecided, in order if possible to save Juliers by diplomatic
arts* He would not allow any of the emigrants to remain in his

§ I.] FROM 8BPT. 1792 TILL APRIL IJdS. — GERMANY. 403

territories, and at the decisive moment declared his neutrality,
by which he gained nothing, but yielded up his oppressed sub-
jects as a prey to both friends and enemies, by whom they were
cruelly maltreated. True it is that he furnished a contingent to
the imperial war, which many of the other estates did not do,
caused Mannheim to be put in a state of defence, and allowed
the Austrians to collect a division of their army on his territory,
but at the same time remained perfectly quiet, when Custine^s
hussars and peasants marched to Worms.

The margrave of Baden, whose territories were then small,
had no army, and the duke of Wirtemberg declined the proposal
of Austria to take 8000 Wirtemberg troops into her pay : he
also wished to remain neutral. The landgrave of Darmstadt in
like manner was anxious to promote his own interest, and made
not the slightest attempt to defend Frankfort and other parts of
the right bank of the Rhine, when Custine crossed that river
with a very insignificant force. Danger no sooner appeared im-
minent, than Darmstadt, as well as Baden, Bavaria and Wirtem-
berg, began to carry on secret negotiations with the enemies of
the empire ; and an agreement having been made, sent its small
army from Darmstadt to Giessen, and quietly looked on whilst
Custine levied contributions on Frankfort.

In Hesse-Cassel, William IX. had succeeded his father in
1786, who had become so rich by his notorious traffic in men
during the American war, and on his accession adopted several
measures well calculated to promote the welfare of his subjects $
but his stony, military heart, and his mind, which was only intent
on discipline, parades, and the accumulation of money, were now
filled with the greatest anxiety and dread of the difiUsion of the
new spirit which since 1788 had emanated fi*om France. He was
much too penurious to give a kind reception to the emigrants^ or
to enter into a war with the Frenchmen of the new age, who
were his detestation, and he eventually did this merely to please
the king of Prussia, and afterwards in order to pocket English
money. He carried on the severest and bitterest persecutions
against the utterance of every free thought which might affect or
lead his Hessians astray, who were accustomed to strict military
obedience ; but nothing could induce him to expend a farthing
upon the emigrants, however distinguished or unfortunate they
may have been. The petty prince of Waldeck pursued a course
in this respect the very reverse of William IX., and so com*

2d2

404 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. XU

pletely exhausted his finances by his hospitality and liberality
towards the emigrants, that no one in Gottingen, near which he
resided, would give him credit even for a few dollars. The Hes-
sians, who joined the Prussians on their march through Cassel
in 1792, were taken into the pay of the king of Prussia, till in
179s a favourable opportimity occurred of selling them to ad-
vantage to England.

Worms, Spires^ and the three ecclesiastical electorates had ex-
cited the warmest enmity of the French by the reception given
to the emigrants. This was completely the affair of the priests ;
the citizens and peasants were extremely enraged at the course
which was pursued. They were moreover in the highest de-
gree dissatisfied with their governments, in consequence of the
favour shown to all descriptions of rabble and every kind of
spiritual and temporal abuses; the way down the Rhine was
therefore paved for the French who were then in Alsace. Had
not Custine foolishly crossed the Rhine, he would have been
easily able to have raised an insurrection in the electorates of
Treves and Cologne as well as in Mayence, in the rear of the
Prussian army.

Of the three spiritual electors, Maximilian Joseph of Cologne
was undoubtedly the best ; but it is deeply to be lamented, that
from attachment to his unfortunate sister, Marie Antoinette, he
should have given a degree of support to his friends, relations,
and to the emigrants in general, which was totally inconsistent
with his means. The Saxon prince Clement Wenzeslaus of
Treves, who in this archbishopric, and still more in his bishopric
of Augsburg, cherished the Jesuits, to whom no favour was shown
either in Cologne or Mayence, had become already an object
of aversion on account of his avarice ; the feeling against him
was greatly increased by the insolence, licentiousness, and the
whole conduct of the emigrants, who, to the great annoyance of
his brother, the emperor Leopold, were protected and favoured
by him more than by other princes, with the exception of the
prince of Waldeck. He suffered them to collect armies, to recruit
troops, and to make a warlike incursion into their own country,
and even relinquished his favourite residence of Schonbornslust
near Coblentz, to the king's two brothers and their court. The
whole electorate was discontented, because all trade and com-
merce had been completely destroyed by baron Dominique, to
whose management the aged elector, who had neither knowledge

§ I.] FROM 8BPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — GERMANY. 405

nor resolution^ had entrusted everything. Baron Dominique
exercised uncontrolled dominion both over the country and the
elector^ because, in order to gratify the old man's avarice, he, as
his first minister, sacrificed every consideration to the fiscal en-
richment of the treasury and the privy purse.

Frederick Charles Joseph von Erthal, who cherished and pro-
tected arts, manufactures and science with princely splendour in
Mayence, had for his private secretary Johann Miiller the Swiss,
afterward known as Johannes von Miiller, the historical eulogist
of the middle ages and its knightly aristocracy ; from the incomes
of three of the richest convents, which he abolished for the pur-
pose, he founded a new university, in which there were some pro-
testant professors, and among them Sommering and George
Forster ; but all the splendour of his court could not conceal the
destroying cancer of hierarchical feudality. It is impossible to
obtain a clearer view of the evils from which the left bank of the
Rhine suffered at that time, when it was tormented and deso-
lated by ecclesiastical nobles as by a swarm of locusts, than
from the remarks of two able men who were eye-witnesses of
tlie whole course of proceedings which was pursued at the court
of Mayence, and the conduct of its nobility and mistresses. The
one of these is George Forster, whose correspondence we re-
commend to the perusal of our readers for many reasons, and par-
ticularly as published in the new edition. The other is lieutenant-
colonel Eikenmeyer, from whose Memoirs, published in 1798, we
shall make a few extracts, but only on such points as we our-
selves have verified by actual observation on the spot, after the
publication of the work referred to. Eikenmeyer, who after-
wards became a general in the French service, is a very suspicious
witness respecting the conquest of Mayence, and we shall there-
fore merely extract general facts and matters of experience, to
which every German was at that time accustomed, and to which
they must in some places begin to accustom themselves again.
He says —

** For many years I was unhappy at the thought, that a people
who were susceptible of every good, and blessed with one of the
richest countries, should be obliged to suffer from a constitution
under which merit and virtue must yield the way to sin and
ignorance, whenever these were found connected with the pride
of birth. This was especially the case under the government of
a prince who brought into fashion and spread a taste for luxuries

406 FIFTH PEBIOD. — SECOND BIVISION. [CH. II.

revolting to reason and humanity^ by means of money extorted
from thosewho were called hia subjectswhich he scattered in hands-
full among useless courtiers, flatterers and mistresses. Together
with this, the vain man was influenced by a longing for notoriety,
and sought eagerly after every opportunity of playing a part in
the politics of Europe/^ &c. &c. Whatever opinion we may en-
tertain of Eikenmeyer himself, the representation is literaUy true>
and perfectly corresponds with all our inquiries on the spot, after
Mayence had become French, and all feelings of animosity had
long disappeared. The dissatisfaction with this prince, a man
after Johannes von Miiller's heart, who was the ardent protector
and friend of the knightly and lineage system of the middle
age8> was the greater in the district of Mayence, on account of
the strong contrast which it exhibited with the truly spiritual
and ecclesiastical government of his predecessor Emerich Joseph
von Breidenbach.

Emerich Joseph, who ruled from 1765 till 1774, was, in every-
thing he did, the true representative of a bishop of the most
ancient apostolical church : Frederick Charles Joseph directed
the whole of his conduct according to the principles of the papal
church, Emerich Joseph was the father of his subjects, lived in
the simplest manner, and enriched none of his relations ; he was
neither siurounded by mistresses, cousins, nephews, nor distant
relations. He was expressly hostile to the Jesuits, their casuistry
and the mechanism of their worship, left behind him scarcely
20,000 dollars, and this he bequeathed to an hospital ; and finally,
he died lamented by good men of all sects. The condition to whidi
Frederick Charles Joseph had brought afiairs at the time when
the French were threatening Germany with an irruption, may be
seen in the 8th part of the writings of George Forster, recently
published by Gervinus : what is there said must be compared
with what we are now about to narrate.

We have already stated, that the duke de Biron, who was very
notorious in the chronicles of scandal of that time, had obtained
the chief command of the army in Alsace instead of Broglio.
He still remained subordinate to Dumourier, under whom he
had previously served in the Netherlands, and was often or-
dered by him to detach a division to annoy the Prussians in
their rear; he was however obliged to wait till the troops under
count von Erbach had marched into the territoiy of Luxem-
burg. This no sooner took place than he despatched general

§ I.] FROM 8BPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — GERMANY. 407

Custine. Custine's division was not indeed strong enough se-
riously to threaten the Prussians ; but he might have reduced
the allies to a state of great perplexity, had he not, out of mere
vanity and presumption, committed the great fault of crossing
the Rhine. He had so small a number of troops, and some of
them bad, that he durst not venture to attack count von Erbach^
who was posted on the Middle Rhine with 10,000 men, but re-
mained shut up within the lines of Weissenburg, till count von
Erbach with his best troops had marched into Luxemburg. The
count left only a small force behind him in Mayence and as far
up the Rhine as Spires, so that Custine was able to show him-
self at the head of his army, which consisted of few troops of
the line, but of a numerous body of national guards. The army
of Mayence, of which count von Erbach was the commander-in-
chief, was moreover much less fit to be brought into action than
Custine^s national guards, who soon learned their military duties
and became fond of war. The elector looked upon the army as
he did upon the church, as a mere institution for making a
splendid provision for the nobility. This is clear from the extra-
ordinary fact, that the few thousand men of whom the army of
Mayence consisted had no less than twelve generals.

When Custine left the lines of Weissenburg, the number of
his army has been greatly overstated at 18,000 men ; before how-
ever he marched against Spires and Worms towards the end of
September, he was reinforced by some thousands of peasants,
who had been infected with democratical principles. The army
appeared quite unexpectedly, and was so favoured by fortune
and the tone of public feeling, that from that moment forward
very different views began to be entertained in Germany respect-
ing the French revolution from those which had been previously
taken. A few thousand prisoners and the ill-guarded stores
which had been collected at Spires fell into the hands of the
French under Custine, on the 29th of September; on the 30th,
Worms was occupied. As the people of the Bavarian palatinate
showed themselves humble, and Darmstadt had been pleased to
send all its troops to Giessen, Custine, with his national guard
and auxiliary peasants, was able to invest the most important of
all the fortresses of the empire as easily as if it had been defended
by mere field- works. Mayence at that time was in somewhat the
same condition as Magdeburg in 1806, after the battle of Jena.
It may be seen from Eikenmeyer's ' Memoirs,' how little this most

408 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

noble and spiritual goyernment could calculate upon the body of
the citizens or upon any sacrifices for their preservation. He
describes the feeling which universally prevailed among men of
intelligence, precisely as it was described to the author on the
spot ten years afterwards, when everything had been com-
pletely changed*. He also so truly and strikingly describes
the state of the fortress, the treatment of the whole body of citi-
zens, and the small estimation in which the best officers were
held when they did not belong to the privileged classes, that we
shall subjoin a passage in a note, because we have inquired into
its truth, and not satisfied ourselves wholly with Eikenmeyer's
testimonyt- Eikenmeyer is undoubtedly highly unjust towards

* Eikenmeyer's ' Memoirs/ Hamburg, 1798 : — " When the fortress of Ma-
yeace fell into the hands of the French in October 1792, the small number of
enlightened men who had been observers of the course of events, but who did
not venture to appear in public affairs, saw nothing else in this loss but a
natural consequence of the bad military constitution of Mayence, and the un-
political behaviour of a court which was occupied with constant intrigues.
The multitude, who were full of hope and entertained the most wonderful
expectations of the result of the Prussian incursion into Champagne, could
explain this wholly unexpected and rapidly successful movement in no other
way than by supposing the existence of some secret understanding with the
enemy. The court party was anxious to keep alive this suspicion, and hired
scribes were employed to circulate it and give it an air of probability. All
those who in Mayence had been hostile to arbitrary power and of the oppres-
sions to which it gave rise, and who on the arrival of the French openly de-
clared themselves to be friends of freedom, furnished some reasonable pretext
for this opinion. I was therefore the man (he was a lieutenant-colonel of engi-
neers) who was said to have given plans of the fortress to Custine. But as this
fortress was surrendered, without the aid of these plans, immediately after the
first summons, by a council of government and a council of war, whose mem-
bers were well known to be anything but of republican principles, they at
least did me the honour of having been able, by my influence, to induce those
high dignities to take this disadvantageous step."

t Every man was classed with the citizens who did not belong to the nobility,
who alone were eligible to foundations and public offices, and therefore the case
is 7WW completely altered. Eikenmeyer, § 7 . p- 1 9, says : —"The military service
in Mayence under Von Erthal, who overturned everything which his predeces-
sors had built up, was an abundant source of profit and luxury for the nobility,
and a means of magnifying the splendour of the court, daily increasing in
luxury and pomp. Pedantry in dress, puppet- like drills, and theatrical exer-
cises, were the peculiarities which distinguished the Mayence troops from all
the other troops of the empire. On all festive occasions the officers were com-
manded to court, and there the differences of rank were exhibited in the most
striking light. Whilst the noble captain and court page sat at the gaming^^
table and helped themselves to refreshments, colonels who belonged to the citizen
class and had become gray in the service formed in rows and durst scarcely ven-
ture to go behind the chairs. If the court festival was concluded with an enter*
tainment, it was then hinted to the officers who were not noble that they might
quietly withdraw." § 8. " It was at these court galas that the fate of officers
was usually decided. Count Wilhelm Sickingen, now in the Austrian service,
and who^ as most people in Mayence know, under the name of minister

§ I.] FROM SEPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — GBBMANY. 409

the elector^ and overlooks all his good qualities ; and in the case
of the surrender, as well as afterwards, he also played a character
against his German fatherland which it is quite impossible to ex-
cuse by any love of freedom, any feelings of dislike to an insolent
and oppressive caste, or any cosmopolitanism whatever.

Custine, with an army whose troops of the line consisted
chiefly of hussars and a very small number of regular cavalry,
no sooner marched against Mayence, on the 5th of October, than
all those who had hitherto lived on the fat of the land and de-
spised everything citizen-like, hastened with all speed from the
city. The elector, the chapter, nobility, priests and councils, left
the city to its fate and fled beyond the Rhine; the imperial
troops which were in garrison there took their departure by a
rapid flight. They excused themselves on the same pretext with
which the landgrave of Darmstadt glossed over his fear or his
treachery for not having put himself at the head of his brave
and well-trained Hessians, and prevented Custine^s hussars,
national guards and peasants, from marching on Mayence. ^' The
empire has published no declaration of war,'' said the landgrave
and the leaders of the imperial troops. Among all the cowardly
and faithless men, who either fled or insisted on a surrender,
there are three Germans whose names demand honourable men-
tion, and these were the capitular of the cathedral. Von Fechen-
bach, chancellor Albini, and privy councillor Von Kalkhof, who
insisted upon the defence of the fortress ; there were however no
troops there, and lieutenant-colonel Eikenmeyer, who had the
greatest influence upon the commandant, even according to his
own account, was not the man who either could or would inspire
the citizens and students with a desire which they did not feel, to
fight for the high German nobility and the hierarchy. The for-
tress was surrendered without a defence as early as the 21st of
October. How important this was, may be judged of by the
fact, that it was afterwards defended by the French till beyond
the middle of the following year, against the whole of the com-
bined Prussian and Hessian forces.

of state, at that time really performed the duties of a maiire de plaisir, was
accustomed on all these occasions particularly to observe the officers, lliose
whose countenances or external appearance displeased him were remarked,
and means were found to make them aware that they would do well to resign
their commissions, in order to make room for more acceptable persons. These
court musters took place in such a surprising manner, that little power of ob-
servation was necessary to foresee the consequences on every occasion."

410 FIFTH FKRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

The French had no sooner taken possession of Mayence than
they formed clubs in the city as well as in other places on the
Rhincj after the French models^ and the aristocracy of the middle
ages, who had there so grossly abused their priyileges, felt the
whole force of the hatred of the oppressed citizens. This hatred
however was often manifested in such an unreasonable and un-
worthy manner, that all peaceftd, sober-minded men, who loved
their country and religion even in the midst of the degeneracy
of both, and who never despaired, felt offended and disgusted, or
expressed their feelings of dislike both to the French and their
principles. The princes and their courtiers, the priests and their
servants, the free imperial barons and their ofiScials and bailiffs,
all fled from the country*. Even the elector, Clement Wenzes-
laus, in Coblentz, was completely seized with the panic, and
the terrified estates of the electorate forthwith sent a deputation
to Mayence to treat concerning the surrender of Coblentz. In
order to form some idea of the miserable condition of these go-
vernments of the middle ages, it is necessary to know that Cus-
tine could never have thought of extending his operations to
Coblentz, and that Ehrenbreitstein, by which the town is covered,
was regarded as an impregnable fortress.

Luckily for the Prussians and the Rhine countries, Custine
was BO intoxicated by his unexpected and undeserved good for-
tune, that as early as the 22nd he sent colonel Houchard to
Frankfort, in order to offer to that city, which was at that time
fortified, a better freedom than the German. The good citizens
of the prosperous and rich city, which however was still in the
bonds of the middle ages, and whose trade more resembled ped-
dling than commerce, had not the slightest idea of this new free-
dom, which was wholly destitute of privileges, diplomas, guilds
and corporations, although the tradesmen and lawyers made high
and holy asseverations that they were genuine republicans, in
order to be able somewhat to reduce the amount of the contri-
bution demanded by the French. But when the French would
not be satisfied with half a million, and carried away with them
seven of the most distinguished citizens as hostages, and it be-

* This is literally true, for the late syndic Kleudgen has often told the
author the way in which he and the prorector of Heidelberg (who was a monk
and professor of catholic theology) were engaged on business in one of the
villages when the news came that the French were coming. The prorector
gathered up his gown under his arm, leaped out of the carriage, and fled on
foot over stocks and stones.

§ I.] FROM SEPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — GERMANY. 411

came eventually necessary to pay a full million in the beginning
of November^ then the Frankfort love of freedom wholly dis-
appeared^ and they became again good German patriots*

The French had also taken possession of the small fortress of
Konigstein^ which belonged to Mayence^ reached the summits of
the Taunus hills, and pushed forward as far as Nauheim, when
the Prussians, who had returned from France, collected, arranged^
and reinforced their army on the Lower Rhine, and, in con-
nexion with the Hessians, prepared again to occupy Frankfort
6nd to wrest Mayence from the hands of the French, The
former was not difficult; the second cost them great labour,
time and expense, notwithstanding the confusion then prevailing
in France. Mayence was well provided with stores and artillery ;
the most skilful officers, who gained great renown by the defence
of the city, were sent thither ; and the most violent and resolute
members of the convention were appointed as absolute com-
missioners to the army in the conquered districts. Reubel and
Merlin, two of those officers, gained no small glory during the
investment of the city. The French republicans proved as suc-
cessful against the Sardinian army as they had been against the
Prussians. According to agreement, the Sardinians were, pro-
perly speaking, to remain on the Var and the Is^re till the allies
attained their object; but they must always have had reason to
fear being betrayed in Savoy, because the fiscal regidations and
despotism of the court of Turin had embittered the minds of the
people against them ; as soon therefore as the French advanced,
they evacuated Savoy and left Nice also to its destiny. On the
28th, general Montesquieu took possession of Savoy, and gene-
ral Anselme of Nice, neither of whom experienced the slightest
opposition.

Frankfort was moreover retaken by the Prussians and Hes-
sians as early as the commencement of December ; this deed
however ought not to have been commemorated by the erection
of the monument before the Friedberg gate, because the brave
Hessians who there fell storming the city made a very wrong-
headed and wanton sacrifice of their lives, as the French could
not possibly maintain themselves in the city after Custine had
withdrawn to Hochheim. The German empire had at last de-
clared an imperial war on the 23rd of November, but it was not
proclaimed till the 22nd of March 1793. The more tedious the
movements of the empire, the more rapid became those of the

412 FIFTH PBRIOD.^SBCOND DIVISION. [CU. lU

national convention in Paris. At the very moment in which the
Germans were adopting measui'es for the reconquest of Ma-
yence, the convention united both the city and territory with
Prance. The people of Mayence were compelled to send a de-
putation to Paris, to beg that their territory might be incor-
porated with those of the republic. Savoy also was united to
France, as the department of Mont Blanc. Avignon and Ve^
naissin had been already wrested from the pope in the midst of
peace, and Belgium was no sooner in the hands of the French
than it too was obliged to petition for a union with France.

At this time the friends and adherents of the duke of Orleans^
concerning whose share in the French revolution many fables
have been invented, had the guidance of affairs in their hands,
and they constituted precisely that portion of the holders of power
who were as real and practical as they were immoral. Dumou^
rier and Danton were masters of the state, the one in the field
and with the army, the other in the cabinet and with the fer-^
menting mass ; tluree intimate friends of the duke of Orleans, in
connexion with Dumourier's former ^ro/^^cHeymann, who was
still in the Prussian service, had laid the foundations of a scheme
for bringing the Prussian politics into conflict with the views of
Austria. The pupil of madame de Sillery, who is better known
under the name of countess de Genlis, Louis Philippe of Char-
tres, eldest son of the duke of Orleans, under Dumourier*s
guidance, played the part of an ultra-democrat, and young as he
then was, deceived the republicans, both as to his own views and
those of his father, which Dumourier would have realized had
fortune continued favourable to him. From the fragment of the
journal which Louis Philippe kept to please madame de Genlis,
from 1790 till the end of 1791 *, we learn how well the countess

* Single portions of this journal, but designedly and maliciously chosen to
place king Louis Philippe in the most disadvantageous light, are to be found
in a work entitled ' Louis Philippe et la Contre-r^olution de 1830,' par B.
Sarrans jeune, 2 tomes, Paris, 1834. The English tory who bought it at
madame de Genlis's auction, has translated it into English and published it
in the ' Quarterly Review,' vol. lii. August — November 1834, pp. 527-555.
The publisher prefaces the translation by the following remarks : — " We
happen to possess a copy of this little work, and as it is rare, and has never
we believe been translated, we think our readers will not be sorry to possess
it in extenso, particularly as, amidst the deluge of French memoirs with which
we have been inundated, this curious little piece has been carefully suppressed*
Nay, in the laboured apologetical life of Louis Philippe, in that liberal but
most flimsy and false publication, the ' Biographie des Contemporains,' it is
not even alluded to."

§ I.] FROM SEPT. 1792 TILL APBIL 1793. — DUMOURIBR. 413

had trained her pupil to play the part of a demagogue^ although
she herself^ as is well known^ without any sense of shanxe^ after-
wards suddenly forsook democratic ideas to adopt the monarchi-
cal notions of the old rSffime. There it will be seen at Hxe first
look^ that his whole ingenuity was continually on the stretch to
prove to madame de Genlis that he admirably understood how
to clothe himself in the garments of sansculottism.

Dumourier continued to carry on the education which Genlis
had commenced^ made the duke de Chartres his adjutant, for
some time initiated him into all his political secrets, and sent
him, by his presence and advice, to aid lieutenant-general Keller-
mann, who was not initiated ; but the unskilful father frustrated
all that Dumourier and the son had so successfully commenced.
His meanness and total want of shame made him ridiculous, and
his base avarice, exhibited at the wrong time, exposed him to
universal contempt. On the one hand he entered into relations
with Marat, which he ought most carefiilly to have avoided, and
on the other, by his refusal to pay a sum which he had promised, he
furnished this shameless and reckless promoter of revolutionary
frenzy with an opportunity to name and abuse him by placards on
the walls in consequence of this obligation. Besides, on the elecr
tion of the deputies to the convention, the duke exhibited both
his cowardice and his ambition too manifestly to escape the notice
of men of all parties ; and the Gironde, as well as those repub-
licans who had sworn to fight under the standard of Robespierre,
entertained no doubts as to his ulterior views. By ManuePs
advice, the duke made himself ridiculous, and his friends and
adherents objects of hatred and scorn, not only by renouncing
his title but even his fiimily name, in order to obtain an afiected
appellation, which was in reality no name, but was merely to
serve as a passport to his election as a member of the conven-
tion*. Dumourier however informs us, by the names which he
mentions and his manner of relating the circumstances, that
on the retreat of the Prussians in the middle of October, he

* Upon Manuel's advice^ he besought the council of the commune of Paris
to bestow upon him a new name, and in the font of republicanism they
baptized him, Philip Egalit^. He returned thanks for this honour in the fol-
lowing terms : — " Citoyens, j'accepte avec une reconnaissance extreme, le
nom que la commune de Paris vient de me donner ; elle ne pouvait en choisir
un plus conforme k mes sentimens et k mes opinions. Je vous jure, citoyens,
que je me rappelerai sans cesse les devoirs que ce nom m'impose, ct que je ne
m'en ^arterai jamais."

414 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. IT.

went to Paris to arrange a plan of operations, and that, as soon
as he induced the Prussians to retire and laid down a plan for
the conquest of Belgium, he availed himself of the assistance of
the duke of Orleans' friends in order to have his plan accepted.

Servan, minister of war, now began to see that it would be
impossible for him to maintain his place ; Pache, his successor,
it is true, belonged to a different party of the jacobins from that
which was protected by Dumourier and connected with the duke
of Orleans, for he was on terms of more intimate friendship
with Marat and Robespierre than with Danton. There was an
individual however who had also a voice in the decision of mili-
tary questions, and great influence with Pache, who was an inti-
mate friend of the duke of Orleans and a participator in all his
orgies, and of whom Dumourier availed himself to promote his
views ; this was Chauderlos de la Close (author of the ^ Liaisons
Dangereuses^). Dumourier carried on his intrigues in Paris
with consummate ability; he obtained reinforcements for his
army, and succeeded in procuring the appointment of Keller-
mann, whom he could not endure, to the chief command of the
army of the Alps. Dumourier also at that time intrigued against
Custine, and wished to effect his recall from the army of the
Rhine. On the other hand, he availed himself with great ability
of the services of Santerre, who had been violently abused by
him because he was an intimate friend of the duke of Orleans.
Santerre, who had at that time been changed from the owner of
a brewery (for he was no more a brewer than the demagogue
Cleon in Athens was a tanner) into a general, was a good-natured
narrow-minded man, and for that reason fitter to be employed by
Danton and others for the promotion of their objects, and to be
led into revels and debauchery by the duke of Orleans. He was
worked by Westermann and Danton for Dumourier, and Du-
mourier admits, that he was indebted to him especially for being
allowed to enter upon the winter campaign which was under-
taken against the Austrians in Belgium *.

A storm had at that time already been raised against Dumou-
rier, and all the corrupt and worthless men who thronged around

• Dumourier observes, — " Le vil (! !) g^n^ral Santerre fut tr^s-utile ^ cette
occasion; il ^toit maitre de tous les approvisionnemens, et s'il n'avait pas
voulu consentir ^ les lAcher, i) etLt fallu rester dans I'inaction. Heurcusement
Westermann 6toit son amij Danton pouvcit tout sur lui, e/ its y mtren/ un
grand zele*"

§ I.] FROlf SEPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — DUMOURIER. 415

Danton and the duke ; the consequence of this was a much
greater accession of power in the jacobin club, among the people,
and in the convention, to Robespierre, than his talents could
have procured for him, although he was a man incorruptible in
his principles, simple in his mode of life, and above the reproach
of licentiousness in morals. Dumourier therefore hastened back
with rapidity to his camp, because the girondists hated and
abhorred him, Marat wrote and Robespierre declaimed against
him, and he saw no other possibility of executing his designs
except by victories, conquest, and enriching the people who were
either sent to him from Paris, or whom he himself appointed to
their situations. His views were obviously neither ideal nor re-
publican. He no sooner returned to the camp than he ordered
the division under BeumonvUle to join the main body under his
own command, in order, with their combined forces, to make an
attack upon the duke of Saxe-Teschen before Clairfait could
form a junction with him. Clairfait with his army had separated
from the Prussians on the 13th of October and marched into
Luxemburg, but was obliged to make a circuit in order to form
a junction with the duke. The troops under the command of
Saxe-Teschen had raised the siege of Lille on the 24th of Oc-
tober, and been driven back from point to point as far as Mons.
In the neighbourhood of Mons, or at Bergen, near Jemappes^
the duke resolved to make a stand, before all the regiments had
arrived which Clairfait was bringing to reinforce him, and whilst
those which had arrived were still suffering from the fatigues of
their march. It is obvious, even from the sparing and eulogistic
Austrian report* of the exploits of this noble commander ia
this campaign, that in spite of all palliations and excuses, it
would have been very fortunate for Austria, if, instead of him
and other princes therein named, some other able generals had
possessed the command. The imperialists were completely de«
feated at Jemappes, and the Walloons deserted. They were not
however very rapidly followed by the French; and no small
astonishment was felt at the delay, and all kinds of suspected
views and secret plans were attributed to the intriguing Dumou-
rier, who, without any apparent reason, remained in Mons from
the yth till the 10th of November. Robespierre and Marat
availed themselves of this fact to excite suspicions against Du-

* In der osterreichischen militiirischen Zcitschrift. Neue Auflage. Wien,
1834. 2r Band, s, 5, nnd folgende.

416 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

mourier in Paris, for Marat published in his dreadful journal,
^ L'Ami du Peuple/ a long series of remarks on the battle of
Jemappes, some just and true, and others malicious, and espe-
cially directed against Dumourier and his adherents in the con-
vention.

The duke having been compelled to resign the command of
the army, which was in a miserable condition, to Clairfait, and
having gone to Aix la Chapelle, the new commander soon found
himself unable to maintain his ground against the French, and
was obliged to evacuate the whole of Belgium at the end of No-
vember ; Liege was occupied as early as the 28th, and on the
30th Miranda reduced the citadel of Antwerp. In Liege the
French found a much more ardent revolutionary party than in
Mayence, for the people of Mayence had been only rendered
hostile to the whole system of German nobles, priests and
ofliciak by the last bishop, whereas the people of Liege had
been at enmity with the prince bishop for thirty years. This
district was therefore earlier, and much more easily united with
France than Belgium. In the meantime Dumourier was en-
gaged in a series of disputes with Pache, the minister of war,
who did not belong to that party which availed itself of the in-
strumentality of Marat in his journal, iu order to write down
every man who exhibited any degree of genius, or was unwilling
to concur completely in all Robespierre's views. This party
however still spared Danton and his adherents, because they still
had occasion for his energy and influence to assist in annihilating
the girondists, as the constitutionalists had been annihilated
since August. Robespierre and his friends therefore rabidly
attacked Brissot, Roland and others, as early as the months of
November and December; in January the girondists were
obliged to acquiesce in Roland's resignation of his of&ce, al-
though coupled with the condition that Pache also should cease
to be minister of war. The jacobins however succeeded in having
their friend Pache appointed mayor of Paris, whereby he became
much more powerful than before, because the commune of Paris
ruled the whole of France : Roland remained without any ap-
pointment. Pache had previously been obliged to make conces-
sions to the victorious general, and to suffer him to enter into all
sorts of negotiations with adventurers, fortune-hunters, specu-
lating contractors and commissioners, who robbed the soldiers of
their claims and cheated them of their supplies, to enrich him-

§ I.] PROM SBPT. 1792 TILIi APRIL 1793.— DUMOURIBR. 4l7

self. Dumourier chaiges general La Bourdonnaye, his second
in command^ and a man of his own stamp^ with having been
guilty of wholesale extortions ; that may be so^ but the Peruvian
adventurer Miranda, whom Dumourier chose to replace him, was
indisputably much worse, and especially far inferior as a military
man to La Bourdonnaye.

The brave soldiers of the republic in the meantime sufiered
great miseries, the discipline of the army became relaxed, specu-
lators and knaves enriched themselves, and Dumourier, on ac-
count of his intrigues, was compelled to have recourse to the
aid of very worthless men, or to act with military vigour against
those still more worthless ones who were sent to him in crowds
from Paris by the clever criminals who were at the helm of
affidrs : by these means he exposed himself to great animosity
and hatred. Dumourier's 'Memoirs' cannot be regarded as any
authority for these intriguing times, because he is very anxious
to conceal what all of us, however young, who lived in those
times, knew to be the fact, — that his whole army fell into a
miserable condition through the dishonesty of the contractors,
whilst the bloodsuckers of Belgium, the refiise of Paris, became
rich. To all this may be added, the equivocal and ambiguous
language and conduct of the commander-in-chief; his continual
disputes with Pache,'the minister of war, as long as the latter
remained in o£Sce ; and finally, the prevailing anarchy and party-
spirit in the convention, untU they got rid both of the king and
the Gironde. Cambon, who afterwards directed the financial
afiairs of the new republic, was undoubtedly a fanatical repub-
lican, who shrunk from the adoption of no means of terror ; but
he was at the same time a master in his department, — ^honour-
able, faithful and industrious. He first directed Pache's atten-
tion to the confusion which Dumourier and his contractors
had made*, and because the finances or treasury were under his
direction, he submitted his views to the convention respecting the
speculators. Dumourier favoured the usury of these people,
because he profited by their intrigues, although he may not

* The way in which Dumoarier speaks of speculators of the worst descrip-
tion (predecessors of Oavrard) will sufficiently show why Malus and D'E-
spagnac, whom Dumourier had sent to Paris as his agents, were arrested.
" D'Espagnac," he remarks, " homme de beaucoup d'esprit et fertile en re»^
9ouree9, vint Ty troaver. II avoit Tentreprise des convois de I'arm^. II lui
pr^ta dnqaante mille 6cus, et il fit par ordre du g^n^ral avec le commissaire
ordonnateur Malus, diffi^rens march^ pour des souliers et des capotes, dont le
soldat avoit grand besoin dans une saison aussi rigoureuse."

VOL. VI. 2 E

418 FIFTH PBItlOD.--HISOOND MVlfilOlf. [OH. tU

have shared the advantages of their infamous gains. On the
motion of Camboni the convention caused the chief speculators^
Malus, Petit Jean and D'Espaguac, to be arrested.

The conduct of one class of jacobins towards the other did
not make the matter better* The army was not better provided
for^ and the conquered country was still more cruelly plundered,
when the anti'^Orleans party to which Pache belonged, sent
other knaves and scoundrels who were to cabal against Dumou*
rier as the others had intrigued in his favour. The choice of
the chief commissioner itself proves, that the scum of Paris, the
refuse of the hellish adherents of Marat, were urged on against
the rich and bigoted Belgians. The fanatical Ronsin, who after*
wards, at the head of the revolutionary army, filled all the coun-*
try around Paris with horror and dread, and at a later period, in
connexion with Westermann and Bossignol, was guilty of mur^
der and burning in La Vendue, was selected for this important
office, which demanded a man of the highest prudence and ex«
perience. Dumourier would have been lost at that moment had
he not found support and protection in the deputies from the
convention M'ho belonged to the other party and were present with
the army, and from Camus, Danton, Gossuin and Lacroix.

If any reliance can be placed upon Dumourier^s account of
his disputes and differences with the convention, he had no
doubt much more correct ideas of the manner in which France
ought to have dealt with her conquests, than either the vain re-
pubUcans, who were desirous of forcing their nationality upon
other nations, or Buonaparte, who wished to play the characters
of Ceesar and Charlemagne at the same time. He states, that
he would have united Liege, Belgium, the left bank of the Rhine
and Savoy with France, but would have bound them to that
country by the ties of alliance and gratitude as independent and
separate republics. Had the convention adopted this plan and
advice, the prince of Orange, the German princes and abbots,
and the councils and burgomasters of the middle ages would
have immediately and irretrievably fallen. Dumourier alleges,
that he split with Danton and Lacroix on this very point; they
were anxious not to allow the unlimited dominion and certain
booty, which was secured to them by the decree of the conven-
tion of the 15th of December, to escape from their hands. By
means of this decree, the deputies sent to the armies obtained
possession of unrestricted power. Danton and his three ool-

§1.] FROM SBPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — DDMOURIER. 419

leagues were in fact good for nothing except to pull to pieces
and to destroy; and therefore they were provided at this time
with the assistance of Treilhard and Merlin de Douay, two men
who possessed all those qualities and talents, and all that infor-
mation of which the Dantons were destitute*.

The mischiefs perpetrated in the conquered provinces by
others as well as by the six commissioners sent with unlimited
powers by the convention to the army, at length induced Du-
mourier himself to take a journey to Paris, in order to effect the
rescinding of the decree of the 15th of December. He arrived
in Paris in the beginning of the year 1793, and took part in the
consultations respecting the defence of Mayence against the
Prussians and Hessians, who had regained possession of Frank-
fort Custine had declared Mayence in a state of siege, taken
the necessary steps for its defence as early as the 14th of De-
cember, and stationed 10,000 men of the reinforcements sent to
him by Biron in the city, and yet he still continued to keep
possession of Hochheim six days after the arrival of the sove-
reign commissioner from the convention. In the very com-
mencement of the year, the convention despatched to Mayence
Reubel, Merlin de Thionville and Hauamann, as deputies with
unlimited powers, to erect and organize clubs in connexion with
the parent club in Paris, and as the supreme administrators of
politics, administration and war, to provide for the defence of
the city.

Dumourier left Paris on the 26th of January and found new
enemies to stru^le against on his return to the Netherlands,
because the convention, on the 1st of February 1793, had de-
dared war against England and Holland. The causes of this
war and the course of political events we shall hereafter give in
detail, and in the meantime confine ourselves to Dumourier's
undertakings.

The French began their campaign in Belgium earlier than
the English and Dutch were in a condition to take the field ;
but they overlooked the fact, that the Austrian s, whom they
had driven out of Belgium, had received very extensive rein-

• In the latter part of Dumonrier's Memoirs (published 1794, 6th and 7th
book of the edition of 1822), Dumourier adds : " A ces six commissaires on en
avoit joint trente-deux autres, nomm^s par le pouvoir ex^cutif ou le conseil,
mais d^sign^ par le club des jacobins de Paris. Ceux-ci ^toient pour la plu-
part des iSfttes reroces et des sc^^rats, qui n'entraient dans ces riches provinces
que pour piller et mseBacrer,"

2is2

420 FlPXn PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

forcements during the winter on the Rhine. On the 17th of
February Dumourier set out from Antwerp^ with a view to
attack the frontier fortresses of Holland^ whilst Miranda was
sent against Maestricht. On this occasion tlie expatriated Dutch
liberals rendered most important service to the IV«nch by means
of their committees, which, after 17B8, had been formed partly
in Paris and partly on the frontiers ; and besides, the most di-
stinguished of all the engineer officers of the old French army
commanded one of the divisions of Dumourier's force. This
was general d'Ar9on, who had gained great reputation by the
invention of the floating batteries employed in the si^e of
Gibraltar, although the invention brought no good fortune to
the Spaniards ; but became far more celebrated for having, in
connexion with Camot, helped to prepare and digest the plans
for the victorious armies of France during nineteen years.
Westermann, who in the course of a few months had risen from
the rank of sergeant to that of colonel, in consequence of this
campaign, deserves to be named amongst those generals of the
revolution who have proved that the armies of the revolutionary
time were indebted for their success and victories to the circum-
stance of the way being opened up for merit to' the attainment
of the very highest offices. The jacobins and their representa-
tives, the deputies, had indeed placed a drunken tailor from
Lille at the head of a regiment of hussars, but Dumourier dis-
missed him from his post without ceremony.

The French were at first as successful in Holland as they had
been in the preceding year on the Rhine and in Belgium ; for
the whole of the fortresses fell into their hands as if they had
been open places. Breda, Getruydenberg and Kliindert were
taken without the labours or losses of a siege; Willemstadt,
Bergenopzoom and Steenberg were closely invested, and the
siege of these latter fortresses commenced when the Austrians
at length began to move on the Rhine. On their retreat
from the battle-field of Jemappes, the imperial army had been
almost wholly dissolved, at least completely demoralized ; but
notwithstanding Clairfait had succeeded in bringing it, without
any considerable loss, first to Berghem, and when the French
had also taken possession of Liege, next in defending himself
behind the Erf and the Roer, and in maintaining the small for-
tress of Juliers ; notwithstanding all this, he was replaced by one
of the numerous princes who exhibited as figurants in the An*

§ I.] FROM SEPT. 1792 TILL APRIL 1793.— DUMOURIER. 431

Btrian aimy. Frederick Josiah of Saxe-Coburg was now ap«
pointed to be general field-marshal of the Austrian army of the
Rhine, but before he began his movements against the enemy,
he was to enter into dose relations with the duke of Brunswick,
who was as methodical as himself, and had learned and prac-
tised the old system of strategy in the seven years^ war. He
therefore took a journey to meet the king of F^ssia at Frank-
fort, before he joined the army. The new commander was a worthy
disciple of the tedious strategy of Lacy and other generals,
among whom he had served in the seven years' war, and who
relied on all their plans being devised and settled in the cabinet;
Mack, who afterwards became so notorious, had a description of
influence with him as a colonel similar to that which Massenbach
had with the duke of Brunswick. According to the style of the
newspapers and the language of the court, Coburg had gathered
laurels in Wallachia during the war with the Turks, but in
reality he had merely got himself into a position of great diffi-
culty and danger, and was in the greatest anxiety till Suwarrow
came to his relief, who by the exercise of his immense talents
as a general and the bravery of the Austrians, who rejoiced in
having for once a general worthy of them, gained a splendid
victory. He now appeared with the army of the Low Countries
in order to reap the fruits of what ClairTait had sown ; imme-
diately after his arrival therefore the army advanced. In this
expedition the van was commanded by a prince of the house of
Austria who afterwards rendered great service to Austria and
Germany, and gained great honour by the skill which he dis-
played against Jourdan and Moreau. The arch-duke Charles, to
whom we refer, had learned the science of war under Clairfait

The imperial army broke up from its quarters on the Ist of
March 1793, and advanced for the deliverance of Maestricht,
which had been most vigorously cannonaded by Miranda from
the 20th of February. Prince Frederick of Hesse commanded
the city for the Dutch, but the emigrants, and among them
some admirable artillery officers, were the men who defended
the fortress with all the resolution of despair, because they ex-
pected no mercy from the enraged republicans. Among these,
Dumourier speaks in the highest terms of praise of lieutenant-
general d^Autichamp, and ascribes to him the maintenance of
this position till the appearance of the Austrians on the 3rd of
Marclu Dumourier ascribes the misfortunes which then befell

422 FIFTH PERIOD.— 8BC0ND DIVISION. [CH. II.

the besieging army to an incomprehensible mistake on the part
of general Miranda, whilst Miranda casts the whole blame of
the afbir upon Dumourier's confidential friend, general Valence*
Dumourier alleges, that Miranda should have taken up a strong
position between Tongres and Maestricht, and have there stopped
the Austrians in their advance, but that he had lost his under*
standing and the army all confidence in their generaL The
French were soon driven from the whole of the right bank of
the Meuse, Liege occupied by the Austrians, the French threat-
ened in the rear, terror spread as far as Louvain, and the depu*
ties of the convention, alarmed for the fate of the whole army,
sent orders to Dumourier to relinquish the Dutch expedition in
order to save Belgium. He received this command on the 8th
of March, and on the following day hastened to Antwerp, in
order further backwards to re-collect Miranda's army, which had
become completely disorganized*

Dumourier having been obliged to relinquish his undertakings
in Holland, and the English having been disembarked and ad*
vanoing into the country, he had not only to contend with his
enemies in the field, but with the Belgians, who were extremely
discontented, because the jacobins, who had been sent from Paris
into the Netherlands, and their Belgian associates had conducted
themselves partly like robbers and partly as madmen, Dumou^*
rier however succeeded in collecting an army behind the canal
of Malines, of which the Austrian official reports give an exag^
gerated account in estimating it at 55,000 infantry and 6500
cavalry. These reports fiirther allege, that there were besides
22,000 men scattered about among the various places in Hol-
land, and that the Austrians advanced so rapidly against Du-
mourier in order to attack him before there was time for the
troops from Holland to join. This however was only partly
successful ; and it was not, as they say, prince Josiah who urged
the afiair with so much zeal, but Clcdrfait. The prince should
at least have known, that in the previous year, when the design
was entertained of besieging Lille, no heavy artillery, at most
only some that was useless, was to be found in the Netherlands,
and that he ought now to have made provision against such a
deficiency ; but this was not done, and there was also a want of
heavy artillery for the siege of Mayence. On the advance of
the Austrians, Clairfait commanded the advanced division of the
army : he and the arch-duke Charles were always in the van.

$ !•] VROM 8SPT. 17^2 TILL APRIL l793.«-DnMOUBIBB« 428

At the very moment in which the French army was compelled
to retreat, the jaoobina had caused a general movement among
the people of the Netherlands, and were active in inducing
them to sign petitions id/e a union with France, whilst the people
themselves scarcely knew why they were assembled, and, pro*
perly speaking, did not understand for what they were petition*-
ing. Dumourier therefore describes with great humour the
manner in which at that time new departments were added to
France*.

Dumourier moreover did not await the attack of the Austrians,
but by advancing endeavoured to raise the fallen courage of his
army; he in fact succeeded in repelling the enemy, and on the
15 th of March gained some advantages at Tirlemont. Both
parties had resolved on an engagement, which actually took place
on the 18th of March, between Landen and Neerwinden, where
so many battles had been fought in the time of Louis XIV. As
Dumourier and Miranda had 00 reliance on each other, and the
military talents of the latter were very doubtful, nothing very
good could be expected from the result of a battle in which he
held the chief command, and was at the head of troops who had
no confidence in their general. The field of battle extended
over a space of about seven English miles ; the right wing, which
was commanded by Dumourier, sustained the attack of the
enemies' centre in an engagement which lasted firom seven o'clock
in the morning till five o'clock in the afternoon, and maintained
the advantages which it had gained in the very commencement
of the battle. The cautious and systematic prince field'*marshal
was in fact making all the necessary arrangements for a retreat,
and had actually ordered the artillery to retire upon Tongres,
when he perceived that the aroh-duke Charles had beaten the left
wing of the French.

The defeat of the left wing compelled Dumourier to make a
quick retreat, and he lays the whole blame of this disaster upon
the incapacity or evil intention of Miranda. He alleges, that

* "X^e* comroiaaaires assemblaient le peuple dans les ^glises Bans aucuoe
forme reguli^re. Le commissaire Fran9ais, soutenu par le commandant milU
taire, par des soldata, par det clubistea Frau^ait et Beiges, lieait I'acte d'ac-
cession, que soQvent persoane ne comprenait, non plus que sa harangue. Lea
assistans signaieat cet acte, la plupart en tremblant, on imprimait ces pi^es
et on les envoyaient k la convention, qui, sur le champ cr6ait un d^partement
deplufl/'

424 FIFTH PERIOD. — SBGOND DIVISION. [CH. IK

this general retreated as soon as he saw that two of his columns
had been thrown into confusion^ and troubled himself no further
with the condition of the army. Dumourier waited for him for
some time in vain, and afterwards found him quietly seated at
his writing-table, when he reached Tirlemont on his retreat.
The loss of this battle was ruinous to the French. They not
only lost 7000 men in kiUed and prisoners, but all the exertions
of their officers proved utterly insufficient to prevent the army,
which still partly consisted of undisciplined troops, from dis-
banding. Dumourier now met with the same fate as Lafayette ;
he lost the favour of the people and all credit with the national
convention ; but he had long since adopted measures by his di-
plomatic arts so as to gain protectors and friends among the
enemies of his country. As early as the 12th he had made the
national convention acquainted with his dissatisfaction respect-
ing the condition of things in Paris ; as long as he was a con-
queror he inspired fear, and the influence of his friends among
the Orleans party sustained him ; and Danton and Lacroix had
even been sent to him anew to endeavour to change his mode of
thinking, but after his defeat a universal shout was raised against
him. He was besides imprudent enough on this occasion to ex-
press his belief, that he might rely upon his army for the resto-
ration of a monarchical order of things.

The monarchical project, to which Dumourier at that time so
frequently alluded, could be no other than the establishment of
an Orleans on the throne, seeing that the king was executed and
the whole of the elder line of the Bourbons outlawed. The ja-
cobins were fuUy aware of all this, but they were afraid of him,
for they knew well that he as well as they would not hesitate to
have recourse to any means which would serve to promote his
object. Notwithstanding Dumourier's cunning and talents, in
order to carry on the cabals in which he was constantly en-
gaged, he was obliged to take into his confidence a number of
unprincipled men who sold themselves to both parties. Three
of these men who employed jacobinism as a mere screen for ras-
cality, and like innumerable others called themselves republicans
merely to obtain advancement, were now sent from Paris to
Dumourier in order to worm out his secret. This they were
able to manage without difficulty, because immediately after the
loss of the battle, he had entered into some very suspicious neg-

§ 1.] FROM 8BPT« 1792 TILL APRIL 1793. — DUMOURIER* 425

otiations, and the spies who had been sent to watch his con«
duct, according to their own report^ found him in company
which led them immediately to expect treason*.

Dumourier himself informs us, that he had opened his trea*
sonable intercourse with the prince of Coburg as early as the
2l8t and 22nd of March. As we leam from the Austrian offi-
cial military reports, there were according to ancient custom
two princes, both of whom regarded themselves as above the
law, and carried on continual disputes with each other. Prince
Frederick, who had the command of the Dutch, followed his
own views ; and prince Josiah complained, that he had not ad-
vanced as far as Malines, which he ought to have done.

The chief part in all these intrigues carried on by Dumourier
was played by the notorious general Mack, and everything was
done by word of mouth, because the Austrians agreed to a truce
only under conditions which were not to be made public. The
treasonable agreement which was concluded in Louvain, by vir-
tue of which the French army was to be allowed to retreat be-
yond Brussels without being attacked, and a new conference to
be held with Dumourier on the 24th of March to settle the plans
which Dumourier promised to pursue in co-operation with the
imperialists, was not even communicated to Clairfait, who did
not therefore desist from hostilities. Coburg on the contrary
remained three days in Louvain, and merely for appearance
sake sent out a few troops to pursue the French army in their
disgracefid and disorderly retreat from Louvain. The second
conference between Dumourier and Mack took place in Ath,
and the former himself admits, that he declared to the latter
his intention of leading his army back to Paris and forcibly dis-
solving the convention. He repeated the same thing, in the
presence of his staff, to Proly, Pereira and Dubuisson, the jaco-
bins already mentioned, who had been sent to him at Door-

* The three knaves who pretended to be his friends, and to whom he gave
some commissions to Paris, were named Proly, Pereira and Dubuisson. The
report which they made to the convention may be seen in the last edition of the
M^moires, vol. ix. note B. pp. 277 — ^287. In everything affecting Dumoarier>
the report bears internal evidence of truth ; but it is obvious enough that every-
thing relating to the spies is false. They met him in Doornick in company
with Louis Philippe at the house of madame de Genlis : " II (Proly) le trouva
dans une maison occup6e par madame Sill^ry (Genlis), mademoiselle Egalite
(Clotilde) et Pamela; le g^n^ral ^toit accompagn^ des g^n^ux Valence^
Egalit^ (Louis Philippe), et d'une partie de son 6tat major.

426 FIFTH PSBIOD,— nOOND DIVISION. [O0. II.

nick*. The agreement entered into at Ath between Dumourier
and Mack on the 27th, in presence of prince Louis Philippe de
Chartres, the vrortby pupil of a Dumourier and countess de
Genlis^ was completely frustrated by the imprudent declaration
of his views which Dumourier made on the 29th to the three
spies of the convention at Doomick. He calculated too much
upon the unconditional attachment of his army> and had there*
fore arranged with Mack that the Austrians should halt on the
frontiers and only act as auxiliary forces j the three spies how-
ever instantly hastened to Paris to report to the conventioD what
they had discovered in Doomiok, and on their return through
Lille gave the necessary hints to Delacroix, Robert and Gossuinf
the three deputies of the convention who were there, to lead
them to do everything in their power to counteract Dumourier^s
designs. These three therefore immediately required the com-
mander-in-chief to repair to Lille i he replied however, that he
oould only come to them at the head of his army. In this way
Dumourier formally declared war against his country, and thesOj
as the other deputies of the convention bad previously done^
availed themselves of the secret intelligence they had gained of
his negotiations with foreigners, and of his promise to put a for-
tress into their hands as a pledge of his sincerity, in order to
stir up the pride and national feeling of the army against him.
Dumourier reckoned with certainty upon the troops of the line }
in this expectation he was deceived, but the greater part of the
German regiment of hussars (Berobiny) in the French service
proved really so devoted to him, as afterwards upon his com-
mand to arrest the deputies of the convention and to go over
with him to the ranks of the enemy.

Cambao^r^s, at that time a fanatical jacobin, but also a very
profound jurist, therefore prepared for all cases, and afterwards
Napoleon's high-chancellor, had just brought up the report
agreed to by the committee of general welfare respecting Du-

* Th« conTeraation had turned en the king, when one of the party psidt
no one would content " 'qu'un Louim .,...' Pumourier interrompt et r^plique«
' Peu importe qu'il appelle Loui$ ou Jacobui,* ' Ou PhiUpput,' dit Proly, A ce
mot Dumourier ee tivre k un mouvement violenti dit, que ' c'est une atrocity
dee jacobins, qui depuis longtempe lui reprochent d'toe du parti d'Orl^ne^
parcequ'aprde I'affaire de Jemappee il avoit rendu h la convention un compte
avantageux de la conduite courageusc de ce Jeune homme, qu'il forms an
m^icr/"

( I.] VROM sxirr* 1792 till apkil 1793. — ^dumouubb* 427

mourier's treason, and laid it before the convention on the
26th of March 1793, when Proly, Pereira and Dubuisson an-
nounced the result of their journey of espionage. On this oc-
oasioo, AS well as on all others, Cambao^r^s showed himself to
be a most skilful advocate, becsause in the course of a very few
days, from being the defender of a man whose cause he had
zealously taken up on the 10th, he became his accuser as soon
as victory had forsaken him, and to please the very same ene-
mies against whom he had previously defended him. On the
26th of March, he brought forward the criminal accusation, and
induced the convention to pass a decree on the 1st of April for
the arrest of Dumourier. The deputies Camus, Quinette, Ban*
cal and Lamarque were to be entrusted with its execution and
publication, and they were to be accompanied by Beumonvilley
minister of war, who was to assume the temporary command of
the army. These commissioners found the general at the baths
of St. Amand ; but he immediately caused the deputies as well
general Beurnonville to be arrested by his Oerman hussars in
the service of France, and sent them on the 4th to Clairfait at
Doomick, where they were detained as hostages for the safety of
those members of the royal family of France who were kept pri-
soners in Paris. This occurred moreover at the time when Du*
mourier's plan of putting Cond^ and Valenciennes as pledges
into the hands of Uie Austrians had proved a failure* He had
been repulsed from Cond^ by force, been fired on from Valen-
ciennes on his attempt to enter the city, and his attempt to
surprise lalle was equally unsuccessful. Forsaken by all those
on whom he bad most confidently reckoned, outlawed by the
convention, and proclaimed as a traitot, he betook himself to
Clairfait at Doornick, where he was afterwards joined by some
1500 cavalry and infantry, who brought along with them all the
baggage belonging to the general staff.

428 FIFTH PEBiOD.<-SBCOND DIVISION* [CH* lU

§11.

HISTORY OF THE INTERNAL MOVEMENTS IN FRANCE^ FROM
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE REPUBLIC TILL THE FALL
OF ROBESPIERRE^ ST. JUST AND COUTHON^ THE TRIUMVI-
RATE OF THE RBIQN OF TERROR.

a. FIRST DIVISION TILL THE NEW ORGANIZATION OF THE
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE.

The election of deputies to what is called the national con*
vention was made under the influence of that general terror
which had prevailed in consequence of the events of the 10th of
August^ and fell exclusively upon those who were recommended
to the people by the advocates and literati who ruled in the
clubs of Paris, and who had the boldness to play Dantons in
the clubs which corresponded with that of the capital 'i'.

The proclamation of a republic was already involved in that
of the legislative assembly, which was professedly drawn up on
the 10th of August, and came from the pen of Condorcet, in
which the nation was called upon to empower the deputies
whom they elected to make a complete change f in the mo-
narchical constitution and the laws adapted to it, and the con-
vention was scarcely opened on the 21st of September, when it
passed a formal resolution declaring France a republic. This
resolution was adopted on the motion of Collot d'Herbois, the
actor, who afterwards, in connexion with Dubois Craned, an en-
gineer, played one of the leading characters during the reign of
terror. This day was the commencement of a new order of
things throughout the whole of France. During the previous
tumults and disturbances, the heads of parties were merely in-
tent upon demagogy and the promotion of insurrection, but now

* The author has often conversed with Gr^ire on the events of the reign
of terror, and expressed his wonder that Paris, in which Robespierre niled,
found obedience and imitation throughout the whole of France. The answer
was, " Que voulez vous, il n'y avait pas de village qui n'eiit son Robespierre."

t This " Exposition des motifs d'apr^ lesquels 1' Assemble nationale a pro-
clam6 la convocation d'une Convention nationale et prononc^ la suspension du
Pouvoir ex^tif/' is to be found in Thiers, and also in the ' Essais Historiques
de Beaulieu,' and is the best proof, that the dream of a republic deceived the
ablest members of the Gironde respecting the dangers of the lOUi of August. It
is quite impossible that Condorcet could have written this admirably composed
paper at the time of the tumult, and we have already observed, that everything
had been made ready in July which was to be made public in August.

§ II,] FBENCH RBPUBLIC TILL If AT 1793. 429

all the ablest and most useful men were united in the various
committees appointed for the management of the various departs
ments in the state^ and the deputies of the convention, who were
sent with fiill powers into all the departments, supplied the
want of those authorities which had been everywhere either
abolished or suspended.

By an examination of the ordinances which lie at the founda*
tion of the French code, or by which it was at least preceded, it
will be seen that the wise and experienced men who sat in the
committees, and were unconnected with the police, the politics
of the moment, and with the actual government, adopted at that
time the most admirable measures for erecting a new political
edifice, upon the ruins of the middle ages, suited to the wants
and claims of the age. Whenever any committee possessed the
confidence of the convention, this body unhesitatingly resolved
and decreed what the committee recommended, although in
everything relating to the present moment, to police and govern-
ment, it was absolutely dependent upon the common-council
of Paris, as it again was under the rule of the jacobin club. The
committees themselves, and especially the two entrusted with
the business of administration, were only sufiered to be or-
ganized first in October 1792, after a violent struggle between
the moderate members and those dreadful men who had been
brought into the convention by Robespierre, Marat, and other
demagogues. One of the great objects of the promoters and
fiiends of these committees was, by their means again to reduce
the power of the commune of Paris within just limits, and to
raise up a counteipoise to the jacobin club. The Gironde^
whose members composed the most moderate as well as the
most numerous portion of the convention, was also anxious to
diminish the influence of the savage terrorists. They were par-
ticularly desirous of lessening Danton's influence, whose im*
placable resentment against those who had been anxious to call
him to account for the September murders afterwards contri-
buted to the downfall of the Gironde. For this purpose a law
was passed, that no one could at the same time hold the ofiices
of minister and deputy ; Danton was in consequence obliged to
resign the ministry and the great seal.

The committees divided amongst themselves those depart^
ments of government and administration which had been pre-
viously managed by the ministers of the crown, and the mere

430 . FIFTH PBRIOD.— SKOOND DIVIBION. [CH. II.

executive portion of the government was idl that was now re-
served for those who were called by that name under the con-
vention I they were kept apart from all those noisy and violent
consultations which shook the convention, which alone had to
decide upon all questions affecting the state. In this manner^
thirty members formed the committee of mrveiUance, twenty*
four were named for the superintendence of the war department,
and fifteen sat upon the committee of finance. The legislative
committee was very carefully selected, irrespective of all party
considerations or politics ; its wisdom is to this day recognised
and appreciated by the provinces on the left bank of the Rhine,
and its institutions, with the modifications to which they were
subjected under the empire, are regarded by the inhabitants of
these provinces as the palladium of their liberties. This com«
mittee was composed of forty*eight experienced jurists, formed
by intercourse with the world and trained in the courts of law ;
these men sprung from the ancient schools, which, however bad
they might have been for the masses, as our old learned institu*
tions now are^ were still good for the few, who wished to pene-
trate through the shell and to reach the kernel of knowledge.
There was still a fifth committee of forty-two members, to whom
belonged everything connected with the finances, the mint and
assignats* Although the three parties into which the conven-
tion was divided well knew, that for the present no expecta-
tions of a constitution could be seriously entertained, as the
leaders of the jacobins at a later period publicly declared, yet it
was thought expedient to do something at least to make the
people believe they were not to remain wholly dependent on the
arbitrary rule of the convention, and therefore a committee was
also appointed to draw up the basis of a constitution.

The names Of the persons who were to consult together with
a view to draw up the basis of a constitution will show that it
was impossible to arrive at any practical result, as really proved
to be the case. On this committee, Danton, Si^yes, Condorcet,
Thomas Payne, Potion, Brissot, Gensonn^, Vergniaud and Bar-
r^, at that time still a girondist, sat and deliberated together.
Ajb will be seen from the list, the girondists, or the friends of a
peaceful republic, founded on the full acknowledgement of civil
rights, constituted the majority ; and their enemies aft;erwards
availed themselves of this fact to expose them to the indigna-
tion and hatred of the people, by dleging that they were the

§ 11.] tllSNOH RCPtTBLIG TtLh MAY 179S. 431

persoAA to be blamed for the want of a constitution. The majority
of the convention at that time consisted of moderate men^ to
whom the general name of Girondists was given^ however dif-
ferent they were in the directions and tendencies of their poli-
tics ; the party however had no resolute and e£Beient leader^ for
Brissot never was entitled to that rank^ although theur opponents
nicknamed the party Brissotists. Their opponents^ the proper
jacobins^ from whom the Gironde completely separated after
the murder of the king, had two men to whom they yielded
implicit obedience ; there was therefore unity among them^ and
by virtue of that unity of action they also became eventually
conquerors« Those deputies who at a latter period constituted
the party called the Mountain, recognised Robespierre as their
leader^ and Marat as the expounder and organ of thdr cruel
energy ; the others (called Cordeliers) followed Danton's hints^
and till the end of the year 1793 were the authors of all the scan-
dalous scenes which took place in Paris, because they reckoned
the whole of the mob, all the powerful and wicked men of the
city, amongst their number.

The members of the convention who were called girondists,
from October 1795, gave rise to a war between the moderates
and the two parties which fought under the banners of Robes*
pierre and Danton. This was occasioned by complaints and
threats uttered against Danton and his adherents, who were
accused of embezzlement of the public moneys, bribery and cor«
ruption of every description, and against Robespierre and Marat
on account of the incessant demands of the latter for the con-
tinuance of scenes of plunder and blood, and the suspicious
declamations of the former against all those who possessed greater
talents than himself. Servan was therefore driven out of the
ministry by the opponents of the Gironde, and Roland was
merely able to maintain himself in his position till the com-
mencement of the following year, when the discovery of the iron
chest in the Tuileries furnished their enemies with an opportu-
nity of accusing the most distinguished men of the moderate
party of being concerned in a royalist conspiracy*

The locksmith who made the iron chest, which was built up in
one of the walls in the palace of the Tuileries, and contained all
the papers, letters and documents relating to the private poUtics
and views of the king, pointed out the place to the city police where
this suspicious depositaiy was to be founds who then seised upon

432 FIFTH FBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH, II,

and examined the papers, and caused all those to be printed
which were calculated to promote their views. The Gironde
however was accused of having suppressed much. Among
these papers were letters and documents relating to the cone-
spondenoe kept up hj the king both at home and abroad since
1789, with a view to escape from the dominion of the commune
of Paris, and to get rid by any possible means of the national
assembly and his own ministers. This chest also contained
accounts of the vast sums foolishly expended by Laporte in bribe-
ry, and as it was said also, the letters of the leading members
of the Gironde, of which we have already spoken, in which they
proffered their assistance to the king, on conditions which he
scornfully rejected. The most of the men belonging to the
moderate party were timid, and therefore the violent sections saw
the propriety of having recourse to dedsive measures, if they
hoped to rule in the convention, in order to inspire terror, and
to obtain by fear what they could not realize by argument ; with
these views they urged on the masses, whom they called the
people, to demand the execution of the king. The king's trial
furnished them with the means of either causing a complete
severance between the girondists and the fanatical people, or
binding them to a deed, which would confound the timid among
them with the audacious and criminal, because they would be
compelled after the issue of that event to have recourse to all
possible means to protect themselves against the vengeance of the
adherents to the old rigime.

The Gironde was well aware that the captive king might
prove ajsupport to them in case of necessity against their auda-
cious and impious colleagues ; they were therefore well-disposed
to save him, when demands were made from all sides that he
should be brought to trial for his life ; they dare not however
exhibit any evidence of their inclinations. All quiet and peace-
able citizens had been kept in such a state of terror since Sep-
tember, that they scarcely ventured to appear in public ; the
masses of the people were stimulated to violent indignation
against everything old by the journalists and clubs ; the judges
were all selected by the populace who had assumed to themselves
the execution of summary justice and the management of the po-
lice; and any expression of dissatisfaction with their views respect-
ing the king would have sealed the doom of him by whom it
might have been uttered. We think it necessary in this place to

§11.] FRENCH RBPVBLIO TILL MAY 1793. 433

refer to this fact, in order to determine the point of view firom
which the incredible quarrels^ personal disputes and cabals
must be judged, which occupy such a prominent place in all
the memoirs of that period, and are usually detailed at such
length in all French histories of the revolution. All this may
have great national interest for the French, but has much less
for other nations.

The charge and accusation against the king did not moreover
proceed from Robespierre or Danton, but firom a member of
the convention who was reckoned among the girondists. On
the 7th of November, Mailhe brought the impeachment, the
discussion on which was opened on the 13th, and on the 20th
Roland, in his capacity of minister, laid those papers which had
been found in the iron chest before the assembly, who wished
to append some of them to the indictment as proofs. Every one
who has even the smallest idea of criminal justice will see^ that
these documents could afford no ground whatever for a penal
judgement upon the king, although they might perhaps have
justified a renunciation of allegiance. The king's trial, into the
particulars of which we shall not enter, was a mere farce ; the
object of which was to induce the majority of the national con^
vention to declare it their opinion, that it had become politically
necessary to remove the king out of the way, and by a bloody
sacrifice to bind the convention irrevocably to the revolution.
The chief points alleged against the king, and proved by the
documents found secreted in the iron chest, really consisted of
nothing more than the allegation, that the king had entered into
and kept up a continuous correspondence with the open and
secret enemies of a people who were constantly in rebellion
against him, and that too at a time when all existing laws were
set at defiance in the name of the people. It also appeared firom
the documents referred to, that he had contributed money for
the seduction and bribery of statesmen of importance, — con-
tinued to pay his former guard even hi Coblentz, and finally, that
he had been made the mere tool of knaves and intriguers and
given very considerable sums to both his brothers; but all this
could not be called a capital offence. It is therefore with no
small astonishment that one reads the report presented to the
convention on the 3rd and 4th of December, drawn up by the
committee of legislation, that is, by forty eight of the most cele*
brated jurists in France. These jurists continued to wrest and

VOL. VI. 2p

434 FIFTH PERIOD. — BBCOND DIVISION. [CH« II.

subtilize the law so long, till they at length satisfied themselves in
coming to the conclusion^ that the allegations made did furmsh
a ground for a criminal prosecution, although even if they were
right, all had occurred at a time in which the people sinned
more against the king than the king against the people.

The prevailing fanaticism, which carried away even the beat
men, clearly appears from the debates which took place in the
convention on the 3rd and 4th respecting the questions, whether
and how the prosecution against the king was to be carried on,
and before what tribimal he should be tried. When we have
read the speeches of those whose words were at that time re-
garded as oracles in France, there no longer exists any difficulty
in explaining the silence of one part of the convention, the vain
forwardness of the majority of the jurists, who were accustomed
to pervert the law, and the cowardice of others, who were anxious
to obtain the favour of the clamoring populace, which was then
the arbiter of honour and the bestower of substantial rewards. In
this respect particular attention must be paid to the speeches of
the pious Gr^ire, and his dreams of Utopian virtue ; of the mar-
quis St. Just, overflowing with the sentimentaliiy of the visionary
Rousseau, in which he quotes the principles of the ctmtrai so-
cial of the Genevese reformer as others do the Bible; of the
learned and philosophical marquis Condorcet, and of Camus, who
was as bigoted and devotional as an ignorant monk. When
such men gave way to vehemence and passion, who could venture
to continue cold and rational without danger of being torn to
pieces ? These men however were real enthusiasts; they did not
with cold malice and poisonous envy calculate the obvious views
expressed in their shallow and figurative declamations, which
were suited to afiect the mass of common minds, in such a man-
ner as to denounce every one who did not coincide in their
opinions as an aristocrat and enemy of the people. Robespierre
was the great master in this art, of whose powers a full display
will be found in his speech on this occasion. His address in
the convention is hypocritical, flattering, and mean. It is what
the multitude regard as beautiful, copious in language and mild
in expression, although he plainly points in the distance to the
downfall of all those who did not concur in his views ; the whole
spirit of the speech is directed against the punishment of death,
but proves at the same time that it must be inflicted on the
king.

§11*] FBBNCH BKPUBLIC TILL MAT lj9B. 435

There were ten men^ who had been remarkable ever since 1789
for their fiery zeal against feudaUsm^ hierarchy, and, in short,
against all the abuses of the times of ancient royalty, and for their
enthusiasm in favour of freedom and the cause of equal rights,
and who for these reasons had been chosen members of the con-
vention, who distinguished themselves on this occasion by their
solemn protest against the murder of the king, which their col*
leagues demanded on political grounds. Among this number,
deputies Louvet and Fauchet were conspicuous ; men who were
well-known for their fiery republicanism, and their vehement
hatred against those abuses of Christianity which they regarded
as popish idolatry; the former of these deputies* warmly sup-
ported his colleague Salles in his proposal that an appeal
should be made to the people, when judgement was about to be
pronounced in January. To this number also belonged the
noblest of all the numerous lawyers in the convention, the jan-
senist Lanjuinais, the zealous defender of right and justice.
The efforts of these ten honest and noble-minded men to ward
off the blow from the head of the unfortunate king proved to be
in vain ; they could not even succeed in having a special tribu-
nal appointed for his trial, as had been done in England in the
case of Charles I. The same convention, which raged with such
fanatical hatred against the king, were desirous, according to the
resolution of the day, to confer upon themselves the appearance
and distinction of a court of justice ! !

It was first resolved, on the motion of Potion, that the king
should be put upon his trial ; and secondly, that the court be-
fore which he was to be tried should consist of the members
of the convention. On the 6ih of December it was moreover
resolved, that a commission of twenty-four deputies should be
appointed to draw up the articles of impeachment, and re-
port to the convention on the 10th, and that the king should
be placed at the bar of the assembly on the 11th. From this
moment the king was treated as a criminal prisoner in the Tern*'
pie, absurdly and contemptuously addressed as Louis Capet,
and loaded with indignities of every description. This was all
cunningly and maliciously calculated with a view to rob royalty
of its splendour, and to destroy the glory which names and
titles still possessed in the eyes of the people, and at the same

* M^moires de Loovetde Ck)uvray« Paris \H2Z, p. 60.

2f2

436 PIPTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

time to expose the person of the king to contempt. With respect
to his own bearing, the reports of all, even of those who have
praised him as a martyr, and have devoted many volumes to the
tragic history of fallen greatness and unmerited sufferings, agree
that he neither exhibited firmness nor dignity. He endured, it
is true, but with the endurance of a monk or a woman, and
not with that dignity and manly firmness which puts common
men to shame, and which might have recalled to the minds of
the miserable tools of his enemies, that they were bom with
degraded souls.

The commune of Paris was entrusted with the safe custody
of the king, and the persons whom they employed as their
agents were selected from among seditious priests and the
lowest artisans, in order that the royal family might be rudely
and ignobly treated. The mean and vulgar persons by whom
the royal family was surrounded in the Temple behaved in their
presence, and in their intercourse with them, precisely in the
same manner as they would have done in company with their
equals in the wine-shops of Paris. We pass over the whole of
the melancholy narrative of these vulgar insults and of every-
thing which mei'ely personally affects the king, because this
must be depicted in a manner altogether foreign to ours, whose
object is to detail the history and connexions of states, of the
life, conduct and condition of their people, and the relations of
the various ranks and orders of which the people consist, and
especially because, instead of invoking either Calliope or Clio, we
are accustomed constantly to appeal to their mother Mnemosyne.
We have innumerable accounts of the last days and fate of
Louis XVI. ; the best however which we can recommend to our
readers is the journal of Cl^ry, the valet who was with the king
in the Temple, and which has since been printed. Thiers also>
and especially Beaulieu, in what he calls his attempts at a history
of the revolution, go very minutely into particulars. The extent
to which the minds of the people were embittered may be judged
of from the passage quoted below, from the report of two eye-
witnesses*. Great differences of opinion prevailed and have

• Histoire de la Revolution par deux Amis de la Libert^, tome ix. p. 221.
" On ne faisoit pas deux pas dans les rues de Paris sans trouver des baladins
mont^ sur des tr^taux, qui quand ils avoient attir^ autour d'eux la multitude
par le son de quelques instrumens, entamoient ensuite un dialogue, dans
lequel on traitoit Louis XVI. d'anthropophage, et dont la peroraison 6toit,
qu'il Moit faire tomber sa tdte pour Taffermissement de la liberty. Dea

§ !!•] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL MAY 1793: 437

been expressed concerning the king's conduct before his judges
and in prison till his execution ; we place no reliance in this
point, as well as generally on the affecting and well-told anec-
dotes which are related by thousands, or the well-known exclama-
tion of the priest upon the scaffold. The king's conduct before
the tribunal and in prison, like the character of his religion in
the Temple and at his execution, seems to us to betray more of
a womanly than of a manlike character, and to have been much
more suitable to the condition of an ordinary citizen than to
that of a king; but most writers, and even Barrere himself, are
of a different opinion*.

Barrfere, in his Memoirs, not only deems it right to praise the
bearing of the king and the whole course of his conduct, but this
dreadful reporter of the committee of public welfare of the year
1793, boasts concerning himself, that although also a perverter
of the law, he was yet better than Buonaparte's high-chancellor.
He informs us that he was president of the convention on the
first hearing of the king before that assembly, and that as such
he spared Louis XVI. the pain of hearing himself addressed as
Louis Capet ; and that Cambac^res, who was then his colleague,
but who afterwards announced to the king, in the name of the
convention, that he was permitted to employ three advocates to
manage his defence, repeatedly used the expression Louis Capet,

fuiibonds, le sabre h la main, hurloient le soir dans le Palaia Royal, A la guil-
htine, Capet, d la gvUloHne. Des soci^t^ populaires ^crivaient des d^-
partemens, qu'il falloit que le sang de Capet expi&t sea crimes ; des hommes
blesses & 1 affaire du 10 Aotlt defiloient dans le sein de la convention sur des
brancards en criant vengeance. Des orateurs des sections afflaoient & la barre
et demandant one sentence contre Capet, d^laroient hautement, que Thuma-
nit^ ne r^gneroit sur la terre, que quand il n'y auroit plus de prtoes."

* In the fourth volume of Beaulieu's ' £ssais,' the tragic history of the king
is related from the 7th of November till the 2l8t of January 1793> with all
the minute circumstances and in the very words of Cl^ry and others ; and at
the conclusion of the volume a report of the judicial hearing and other docu-
ments are appended word for word. It would lead us too far to enter in this
place into a review of all the circumstances on which our judgement with re-
spect to the king's conduct has been formed. Barrdre is of an opposite
opinion. In vol. ii. p. 59> he remarks : " Louis XVI. parut & la barre, calme,
simple et noble, comme il m'avoit toujours paru k Versailles, quand je le vis
en 1788 pour la premiere fois au terns des ^tats-g^n^rauz et de I'assembi^
constituante ;" and I, c. p. 60, " Cependant le roi restait toujours debout avec
une noble assurance ; il ne perdit pas un instant la dignity du tr6ne sans pa-
raitre se souvenir de son pouvoir." This testimony would undoubtedly out-
weigh all others, as Barrere sat in the convention and also saw the king in
the Temple, if it did not come from Barr^e, in whom no confidence can be
placed.

438 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II«

although the king interrupted him in order to state, that that
name could in no respect be applied to him.

The prolongation of the king's trial from the middle of De-
cember^ when it was commenced^ till beyond the middle of
January, must be especially ascribed to the circumstance of the
majority being desirous of resorting to all possible means to
snatch him out of the talons of the Orleamsts, without being
compelled to sacrifice the favour of the lower classes, on whom
at that time everything depended. On this occasion no one was
more active, more courageous, or more fertile in expedients and
obstructions, suggested by his knowledge of law and its forms,
than Lanjuinais, who had previously neither suffered himself to
be deterred by political prudence nor fear from constantiy de-
manding the punishment of the September murderers. The
case was very different with Barrere, who, because the office of
president of the convention was at that time transferred to a
new member every fourteen days, was the person that inter-
rogated the king on the 11th of December, and whose account
of this judicial examination occupies a great part of the second
volume of his Memoirs. It will be seen from the manner in
which he there gives his report, how he withdrew from the afiair,
witii what skill he contrived to serve both parties, and under-
stood how suddenly to change from one side to the other. He
had previously given proofs of his abilities in this way, when
he, Dufresne de St. Leon and Talleyrand, were impeached on
the grounds of some papers found in the iron chest. He drew
his head out of the noose ; Dufresne de St. L6on and Talley-
rand (who was absent) were impeached. With the same skill
did this man, afterwards the Judas of the girondists, escape the
consequences, when through Dumourier's flight, the intimate
relation in which he had stood to Dumourier, Madame Genlis
and the duke of Orleans, and the guardianship which he had
undertaken at their request, threatened to prove ruinous to him.

The rupture which took place between Robespierre's and
Danton's adherents and the reasonable party in the convention,
or between the Mountain and the Plain, during the king's trial,
and in some measure in consequence of it, proved very disad-
vantageous to the management of public affairs. Those there-
fore who wished to rule the convention through the instrumen-
tality of the commune of Paris, excused all the mischief which

§ II.] FRBNGH BBPUBLIC TILL MAT 1793. 439

they suffered and called into life by the declaration, that it was
only possible to secure any unity of government, or the defence
of Uie kingdom against foreign enemies, by having recourse to a
new 10th of August or 2nd of September. All those damorers
who had succeeded in crying down the friends of a monarchical
constitution now thought themselves obliged again to raise their
voices against every man who seceded from the jacobin club, or
whose expulsion from this dreadful association was regarded as
a prelude to the loss of their freedom or life. Whenever there-
fore the war was attended with bad success, the blame was
ascribed to the girondists, and as early as the concluding
mimths of the year 1792, all the newspapers, journals and
speeches in the jacobin club made allusions to the treachery of
Roland, the intrigues of Brissot, the knavery of Louvet, Guadet
and Vergniaud. The girondists however succeeded in having
at least the forms of justice observed in the king's trial. We
have besides always regarded it as a mark of special weakness
in the king, that instead of compelling these men of violence
and blood to be guilty of a formal murder, he condescended to
submit to a long and humiliating trial, and allowed his defenders
to put in answers to the three hundred and fifty-one counts in
his impeachment. The king appeared before the bar of the
convention on the 11th, and again on the 16th of December,
and then an interval was allowed for the preparation of the
defence.

During the period of delay between the 16th and 26th of
December, the mob of Paris, and all those who in such various
ways were employed as the machinery of jacobinism, were sti-
mulated to such excesses of fanaticism and so completely orga-
nized for an insurrection, that the cowardly majority of the
convention was in a state of continual dread, so that they trem-
bled for their lives, and at length fell in with the stream. The
cause was carried on from the 26th of December till the 7th of
January 1 793, and after an adjournment brought to a close on
the 14th and 15th of the same month. On the 14th three ques-
tions were submitted to the convention, which, in opposition to
all the institutions existing since 1790, united in itself the duties
both of judges and jury. Its members were called upon to give
an issue on these questions : ^^ la Louis Capet guilty of conspiracy
against the nation ? Shall the judgement pronounced by the con-
vention be r^erred to the people ? What punishment shall be

440 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

inflicted on him, should he be found gtAUy ? ^' The king was pro-
nounced guilty on the 15th, and all the attempts made by many
members of the convention to procure a reference of the sentence
to the will of the people proved useless. The most violent
debates took place on the l7th and 1 8th respecting the last of
these questions, whether he should be condemned to the pu-
nishment of death? At length it was resolved with malicious
cunning, that each of the members should answer to his name
and deliver his solemn decision ; this method was resorted to in
order to take advantage of the fears of the majority, who dreaded
the manifestation of any appearance of royalism, and to make it
impossible for any one eiterwards to deny his share in the
murder. This method of voting consumed forty hours, and
some idea may be formed from the words of an eye-witness given
in the note, of the courage which was required under such cir-
cumstances for a man to remain true to his convictions of the
resolution with which some members did so, in spite of the
most imminent dangers, and what excuses may be made for
those weak minds which were overruled by terror*.

When all the courageous and honourable men saw that an
absolute majority would be in favour of the sentence of deaths
two able lawyers had recourse to the last means for deliverance.
Lehardy, and after him Lanjuinais, claimed, on behalf of the
lui^g> ^ right which was secured to tfl persons judicially con-

* The few words of an eye-witness, which are here given, seem to us to
contain much more than the whole long dissertation at the end of vol. iii. of
Tliiers's ' History of the Revolution' : "A la convention, il y avoit tnmulte,
d^rdre, fureur. II n'^toit pas un recoin de cette enceinte qui n'ofirit pas
un aspect repoussant. Les hommes du 2 Septemhre sont accounts, arm^s de
bfttons et de sabres. Alt^r^s du sang, que leur promettent les chefs jacobins,
lis remplissentles avenues de la salle, ils y attendent les deputes, applaudissent
k ceux (]ui leur sourient, et poursuivent de gestes assassins et de oris f^roces
cenx qui dans les stances prec^dentes parlerent de cl^mence. ' Ou sa tSte, ou
la tienne!' ne cessent-ils de vocif<^rer k chacun d'eux. Des femmes assises
dans les loges de faveur vis-^-vis la tribune oratoire, par^ avec soin, sem-
blent assister & une giande representation th^atrale. Les d^putds de leur
connoissance les saluent, causent avec elles, vont leur chercher des rafraichisse-
mens. Elles regardcnt avec avidity ce spectacle nouveau; leur int^r^t
s'attache It la physiognomie, au son de voix du d^put^ qui prononce son vote,

&c. &c Cependant les Itres les plus abjectes des faubourgs s'y montrent

en plus grand nombre et sous des v^tements sordides ; on y boit du vin et de
I'eau de vie ; on y fait des paris pour ou contre la mort du roi ; on pique des
cartes avec des ^pingles pour marquer la couleur des opinions a la mani^e
des pontes dans les salons du Palais Royal. L'ennui, I'impatience, la fatigue
se lisent sur tons les visages, lorsque dans les rares intervalles de suspension
on de tranquillity, la colore et la rage n'en d^mposent pas les traits."

§ II.] FRBNGH REPUBLIC TILL MAY l79S» 441

demoed to deaths viz. that two-thirds of the votes should be
necessary to give validity to the sentence. This claim also was
rejected^ and the clamour and tumult became almost incredible ;
and yet withal, of the 7^1 deputies who were present, only 361
voted unconditionally for the punishment of death; and in
order to show a majority, the names of all those should be de-
ducted, who it is true voted for death from cowardice, but who
added to their vote a condition in favour of delay or something of
a similar kind. Garat, who had become minister of justice in*
stead of Danton, who had been obliged to resign in order to retain
his seat in the convention, was now called upon to perform the
duty of announcing the sentence to the king. This man after-
wards played a splendid part in our century, for which he paved
the way by this afiair. To the honour of the majority of the de-
puties however, we must remark that there were courageous men
among them who were anxious for a delay of the execution, in
hopes that the present madness would only prove of short dura-
tion. This proposal was made on the 19th, but rejected by a
small majority, — 380 against 310 votes. The execution took
place on the 21st. By this murder a new and unexampled de-
scription of government and administration of justice was ren-
dered necessary, because the majority of the French and all the
princes were deeply offended at the conduct of the convention.

On the 29th of Januaiy Si^yes came forward with his tran-
scendental idea of transferring the powers of government to an
authority for managing the resources of the nation. Such a
plan was not for a moment to be seriously thought of. The
opponents of the Gironde were therefore indisputably right in
alleging, that the idea of a peaceful social republic governed
according to the Genevese principles was an absurdity under
the existing circumstances ; they were therefore politically right
and morally wrong, when they wished to root out everything
contrary to the system of Danton and Robespierre, and for the
present to allow nothing in France but a continuance of the
work of demolition. They wished to burst all the social bonds
of past times ; to destroy every man who did not share in the
prevailing fanaticism in favour of innovations ; by fair or foul
means to bring estates and public offices into the hands of the
friends of the new order of things, and not to suffer a return to the
quiet operation of law till the subversion of the old regime had
been made complete, and the last everywhere become the first.

442 FIFTH PSBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

In order to attain this object^ it was necessary to enrich the
masses^ the poor^ and even criminals^ because their services
were absolutely necessary for the perpetration of scenes of vio-
lence and force in the interior, whilst the armies were employed
in service against foreign foes. This plan was therefore advo-
cated by all the public orators, and openly and boldly proclaimed
by Robespierre in particular in all public assemblies; it was
daily announced by Camille Desmoulins in his pamphlets, by
Fr^ron, Marat and others in their journals, and by this means
Marat, who had been an object of contempt in the convention
and hooted at by the boys in the streets, became the political
tool of others ; he was in fact the herald of murder. The im-
portance which this ocmtemptible and horrible man possessed
for a long time in such a city as Paris, can only be ezfdamed by
bearing in mind, that a species of impious and audacious origi-
nality gives a degree of force to the language of reckless profli-
gates and blasphemers, formed in the wine-shops and beer-houses
of great cities, of which we have some opportunity of witnessing
examples in our public courts, in the conduct of the most despe-
rate criminals, borrowed from the tales and romances of our own
times, which are unhappily too often full of such scenes of horror
and disgust. Marat was a proficient in this style.

It was quite impossible that the remains of madame de Stael's
saloons, the eloquent men who had assembled and shone there to-
gether with Lafayette, Larochefoucault and others, and who were
not at the head of the Gironde, could offer any permanent resist-
ance to these audacious principles, or to the desperate men who
maintained and propagated them, and who carried them out by
means of the mobs of Paris, which were under their guidance
and control. The struggle for life and death which had been
incessantly carried on between the Gironde and the two Jaco-
binical parties ever since the king's execution, led to scenes in
the hall of the convention and in the streets in February l79d>
similar to those which preceded the fall of the constitutional
party in June and July 1792. Marat gave the signal for all
those acts of violence which were perpetrated by the poor upon
the rich, and well understood how to avail himself of the fact of
some capitalists having made an unseasonable speculation. Se-
veral members of the convention had united with a number of
merchants who had founded a mercantile speculation, which
would have been a matter of course in other times, upon the

§ II.] FBXNCH BBPUBLIG TILL MAT 1793. 448

issue of the war which had recently broken out between France
and England and HoUand, and tixe consequent diflSculties of
importation. They made large purchases, particularly of coffee,
sugar and soap ; the retailers raised the prices of these articles ;
the women of the capital, who were interested in the affidr, were
easily roused to excite tumults in the streets, to assail the shops,
and to raise a cry against the rich. They at last pretended that
they wished to assemble in a body to draw up and sign a petition
to the convention against the rich, and for this purpose obtained
the use of the hall of the jacobin dub.

The whole afiair was a mere contrivance* in order to excite a
tumult and alarm, for the jacobins no sooner refused their hall
to the mob on the 22nd of February, than a number of Marafs
^ Ami du Peuple' appeared on the 25th, in which he encouraged
the populace to storm some of the shops and to hang up at their
doors some of the forestallers whom he pointed out. This hint
from the pi^n of the enemy of the GHronde, for whose annihi-
lation every expression which was uttered by Marat was calcu-
lated, was not indeed literally followed, but first the bakers'
shops and then those of other dealers in necessaries were sur-
rounded by crowds and kept in a state of imminent siege. The
multitudes who besieged the shops first established a low price
above which the goods were not allowed to be sold, and finally
those shops were absolutely plundered. The convention, which
continued to hold its sittings during the tumult, received one
report after another concerning every step which was taken
by the populace against the shops, but the hired clamorers who
fiUed the tribunes raised as loud and violent an uproar in the
hall of assembly as the women did in the streets. Every an-
nouncement of some new piece of mischief was received by them

* In order to explain the machinery of that time and to elucidate the pas-
sage in our text, we here present our readers with the words of an eye-witness
who then played the difficult character of a moderate journalist in Paris.
Beaulieu, ' Essais/ vol. v. p. 53, gives an account of the manner in which the
women who pretended to be washerwomen gave vent to their complaints re-
specting the rise in the price of soap, in the jacobin club and in the council
of the commune of Paris, &c. He then adds : " Voici comme cela se passait^
quand le comit^ secret des jacobins avoit besoin de quelque insurrection, de
cjuelque pillage, qu'il n'osait faire provoqner directement, par la Soci^t^-Mdre
il envoyait des ^missaires aux cordeliers et h la society fraternelle, et les club-
istes cordeliers, et les clubistes femelles, d'apr^ I'invitation de ces ^missaires,
venaient pn^enter aux jacobins, au conseil de la commune et enfin It la conven«
tion, les petitions s^tieuses qui devoient servir d'introduction aux expeditions
populaires."

444 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

with the shout of So much the better, and every proposal to take
means of putting an end to the riot was responded to by Dawn
with him. The majority of the convention indeed succeeded in
carrying their resolution^ by passing a decree of accusation on
the 26th against Marat^ as the instigator and promoter of these
incessant disturbances ; but no one could think of putting the
decree into execution ; on the contrary, Robespierre and Danton^
the two protectors of the accused, founded their dictatorship in
March on his dominion over the people.

Marat's friends, or rather the enemies of true civil freedom to
which the Gironde was favourable, prevailed upon the mayor of
Paris, in the midst of the wild clamour of the tribunes, to cause
a petition to be presented to the convention from the commune
of the city, in which the insane measure was recommended of fix-
ing a maaimum price upon all articles of prime necessity. Even
in these affairs the same men were abeady actively engaged, who
for a year afterwards were the most powerful supporters of the
system of murder. Pache having been obliged to resign the office
of minister of war to Beumonville, had now become mayor in the
place of Chambon the physician, and Chaumette was his pro-
cureur. This attempt to regulate prices failed on the present
and every subsequent occasion, and proved the ignorance of
those who took such a view of its possibility ; but the opponents
of the Gironde, who wished to establish a power dreadful to
every honourable citizen founded upon the favour of the people,
nevertheless attained their object.

On Danton's motion a war-tax was first decreed, which was
to be levied on the rich citizens exclusively, and next forty-two
commissioners of the convention, armed with despotic power,
were sent through the whole of France to promote reforms ac-
cording to Marat's principles. Two of them were to go into
each of the twenty-one departments, in which it was thought
desirable first to lay the foundation of these Jacobinical prin-
ciples, and to dispose of all offices, things and persons with
unlimited dominion, and without any appeal fix)m them or
against them to the convention. They were commissioned to
establish democracy, to remove all obstructions to the intro-
duction of the new order of things, and to cause all evil-disposed
citizens to be arrested and brought to trial, as well as to direct
everything relating to military recruiting with dictatorial power.
We pass over a considerable number of similar measures which

§11.] FRENCH nSPUBIilC TllAs MAY 1793. 445

were reBolved upon in March^ in order to mention that dreadfiil
tribunal, which was instituted on the proposal of the most
learned jurist in France, whom Napoleon especially consulted
respecting his code, and who became his high-chancellor, and
on the institution of which this renowned parasite attached him-
self to the minister of justice who had protected the September
murders. We must not however deprive the theolopans of
their share in this murderous tribimal, which was erected by the
jurists. The proposal which Cambac^rea and Danton, to whom
we have above referred, took up, had originally proceeded from a
protestant clergyman called Jean Bon St. Andr^.

There should, it was said, be a tribunal intended for the whole
of France, and confined to the duty of trying the enemies of
the nation. This was at first merely called an extraordinary^
but afterwards a revohUionary tribunal ; it was changed in its
structure from time to time, till at length it was fairly despoiled
of all protecting forms of law, and assumed the functions which
we shall hereafter describe. The erection of this tribunal has
been excused or defended by the allegation that France was still
swarming with malcontent priests and friends of the emigrants,
and that a dreadful insurrection had broken out in La Vendue
in March. Further, it was alleged that the emigrants had
taken the field with foreigners against their country, and the
defence of the nation must be supported by the severest mea-
sures. Lanjuinais and Guadet, jurists of a different character
from Cambac^res and Danton, attempted in vain to have the
jurisdiction of this terrible court limited to Paris; they were
merely able to obtain the concession, that the jury, whose num-
ber was afterwards fixed at twelve, and not the judges, should
be the sole judges of the fact. It cannot be denied that the
first movement for the institution emanated from the Gironde,
but the dreadful institution itself was afterwards forced into
active existence by Marat's and Danton's sovereign people.
Chaumette organized a threatening procession from the Paris
sections of Bon ConseU, des Cordeliers and des JacobinSy in
order to compel the convention to acquiesce in the institution of
this tribunal ; we see however, from the changes which were
effected in the original form of the court, such as it was pro-
posed* by Cambac^res and Danton, from the 10th of March

* The resolation, as proposed by Cambac^r^ and Danton, was as follows :
'' U sera ^bli k Paris un tribonal eztraordioaire r^volationnaire. Ce tribunal

446 FIFTH PSBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

when it was first established^ till the end of the month, how
powerful the members of the Oironde then were. It was the
heads of this party who succeeded, at least at first, in giving to
this tribunal the appearance of an ordinary court, during the
continuous bloody struggles of this month. The united ad-
herents therefore of Robespierre and Danton alleged, as early as
April, that it was impossible to expect any unity of government,
or any energy for the defence of the kingdom, until the party of
the Gironde was completely annihilated.

According to the milder and better form of the court which
has been just referred to, there were to be five judges and twelve
jurymen, a public prosecutor, and two assistants ; certain ju-
dicial forms were also established, which were neglected as soon
as the Brissotines, or as they were called, federalists of the con*
vention, were conquered. From that time forward the public
prosecutor alone spoke before the court, and the jury chosen by
the convention, that is, by the faction ruling in the convention,
pronounced ffuUiy, whilst the judges named by the same fieurtion
passed the $enienee of death i this tribunal recognized no other.
Such a court obviously required a police suitable to itself; and
together with the committee of surveiUancey appointed by the
convention, and that of the commune of Paris, such a committee
was formed in every section of Paris and other large cities, and
finally in every parish. Twelve citizens, chosen by lot, were
everywhere elected, and constituted an authority before which
every man was obliged to appear and to receive from its hands
the card of a citizen. Whoever was unprovided with this card
was exposed to penalties or death.

At this period the laws agunat emigrants, priests and mal-

connattra de toute eDtreprise contre-r^volutionnaire, de tout attentat contre la
Hbert6, 1'^galit^, Tunite et rindWiaibilit^ de la r^pubtique, la sAret^ ext^rieure
et int^rieure de I'^t, de tous les complots tendant k r^tablir ia royaut^ oa k
^tablir tout autre autorit^ attentatoire k la liberty, T^galit^ et la souveraint^
da people, soit que les accus^ soient foactionnaires civile ou militaires oa
•imples dtoyens. Les membres da jury sout choisis par la cod vention. Les
juges* Taccusateur public et ses deux substituts sont aussi nomm^ par elle k
la plurality r^tive des suffrages. Une commission de six membres de la
convention est charg^ de Texamen pr^paratoire des pieces et de la haute sur-
veillance sur les proc^ures. Le tribunal prononcera sur la validity de la
recusation des jur^s oui pourrait Stre faite par les accuses. La declaration
des jur^ sera rendue a la plurality absolue des suflfragcs. Les jur^s voteront
et formeront lear declaration publiquement et k haute voix k la plurality ab-
solue des su&ages. Les juges ne peuvent readre un jugement s'ils ne sont du
nombre de trois. Les jugemens seront ex^ut^ sans recours an tribunal de
cassation. Lesbiens dee condanui^s seront acquis au profit de la r^pabliqae/'

§ !!•] FBBNCH RBPUBLIC TILL MAY 1793. 447

contents of every description were rendered more severe at least
once every week, and among others a law was passed^ that every
non-juring priest and every emigrant who should return to his
home should be executed within eight-and*forty hours. No-
thing was said of a new constitution except that Si^yes once
produced a metaphysical specimen of such a document. The
various committees of government^ and the deputies who had
been sent into the provinces at that time, exercised a dictatorial
power in the kingdom. Neither the committees nor the con-
vention were however agreed among themselves ; Danton's and
Robespierre's dominion, on the contrary, was continually dis-
puted by the Oironde from April till the end of May. Danton
and the knaves who together with him and Dumourier had
maintained the cause of the duke of Orleans, were at last obliged
to relinquish the prince, when Dumourier and the duke's son
became traitors. The duke had exposed himself to suspicion
by assuming the name of Philip Egaiit^, and he embittered even
Robespierre against him, by voting for the death of the king ;
Danton was unable to save him. At the beginning of April he
was conveyed from Paris to Orleans as a state prisoner, and then
to Marseilles ; and Robespierre was not able to succeed till Oc-
tober in having him brought back to Paris and there executed.

The measures to which recourse was had in this month did
not proceed from the jacobins and cordeliers alone, but the gi-
rondists, threatened by their enemies in the convention, and by
the fanatical royalists, aristocrats, priests, and the slaves of
priestcraft of the old r^ffime, were obliged either to bring for-
ward or to defend severe laws, in order not completely to lose
the favour of the people, their influence, or their lives. Because
these men already perceived in March that they must yield to their
violent opponents in Paris, and as the whole government by de-
grees fell almost exclusively into the hands of the two clubs and
the common-council of Paris, they were zealous in their oppo-
sition to the centralization of all government and civilization in the
capital. They threw out some hints of a union of French repub-
lics, of which the centres were to be established in the lai^ge trading
cities of the south and west. This idea of Brissof s was adopted
by Barbaroux, Guadet, Condorcet and other able and intelli-
gent men, but not the slightest use was made, nor any measures
taken to apply the principle to the state, and this very idea was
afterwards regarded as high treason in the opponents of Robes*

448 FIITH PBBIOD.— 8BCOND DIVI8I0X. [CH. II.

pierre and Danton ; the Parisians were espedallj enraged against
them because their scheme was calculated to humble the pride
of the capital. The party was named federaUstg or Brissotines^
and this name, like that of aristocrat, or on our side of the Rhine
at the present moment, of jacobiity demagogue, or communist, was
a species of sentence of death which every cowardly calumniator
had it in his power to pronounce against every honest man.

Up till the time of Dumourier's flight and the delivery of the
minister of war into the hands of the enemy, which we have
already related, the Oironde found a very powerful support in
general Beumonville. He was the man who with strong hand
repelled the assault of the mass of jacobins, who on the 10th of
March 1793 wished to repeat against the convention, what on
the 10th of August had been perpetrated on the king. The
proposal to storm the convention was not certainly adopted
without Danton's advice, by the sections des Cordeliers and of
the four nations. Danton kept in the back-ground, but his
hellish subordinates, Varlet, Foumier, Lasuski and Desfieux,
showed themselves openly, but at the head of such a cowardly
rabble as no one would have acknowledged had the cause failed
of success. At a previous period neither Pache the mayor,
Chaumette the procureur, nor Hubert of the treasury knew
anything of the plan; Santerre spoke against it; Marat and
Robespierre denied all participation whatsoever in the com-
mencement of these public murders; these men nevertheless
carried their plan into execution.

The plan of the September murderers was as follows : the whole
body of ministers were to be engaged in deliberation on the
tOth, at the house of the minister of war ; these were either to be
driven out of the country or slain, and then the convention
would be compelled to expel such of their members as proved
not to be agreeable to the murderers. The whole masses of the
people therefore rushed in streams to the convention, filled the
hall as well as the neighbouring squares and streets, whilst the
real instigators of the plan, who were exclusively bold villains,
surrounded the house of the minister of war. Fortunately
there were still in the city 4000 of the Brest volunteers, who
were on their march to the army, and who had already
helped to restore order in the capital on the 25th of February ;
Beumonville had immediate recourse to those who were his
countrymen. The ministers caused ladders to be placed against

§ II, j FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL MAY IJOS. 449

the lofty walls^ and by means of these escaped into the garden^
from whence BeumonviUe hastened to the Brest volunteers, and
having put himself at their head, sword in hand, he soon scat-
tered the mob. The remaining crowds at the convention were
afterwards easily dissipated, because they were without leaders,
and a very heavy storm of rain compelled them to seek for
shelter.

The convention, which on its opening had assumed a com-
pletely despotic power, and united in itself the functions of
government and legislation, together with the administration of
justice, on the pretence of being furnished with peculiar powers
to represent the people in an extraordinary manner, during the
months of March and April delegated the whole of ttiese powers
to various committees. The committee of government, although
bound to make reports to the convention, constituted in fact
even at that time a despotic oligarchy. This oligarchy however
was first completely instituted aft;er the breaking out of the
disturbances in La Vendue and Dumourier's flight from the
army, although a diplomatic and a miUtary committee, and a
third which was called the committee for general defence, had long
united in themselves a great part of the power of government,
whilst not only a state inquisition {comity de surveillanee) formed
from the convention, but one still more democratic had been long
established in all the communes. In the course of events, the re-
volutionaiy tribunal, the plan of which had been drawn up by the
greatest jurists of the present century, was changed into an ex->
traordinary political machine, by the decree quoted in the note^:
under this law, without having recourse to aU the wicked arts of
the monarchical inquisitions, any man might be destroyed who
was of a different opinion from his enemy and accuser. At a
later period another name and designation was given to the
committee for general defence. This change was consequent on

* " Cexa," BO rons the decree, " qui sont ou qui seront pr^venus d'avoir
pris part k des r^oltes contre-r^olutionnaires qui ont ou qui auraient lieu k
r^poque du recrutement Bont hors la loi ; en coiiB^uence, iis ne peuvent pro*
fiter des d^crets concernant la procedure criminelle et rinstitutioo des jur^s,
Le fait demeure constant par un proc^ verbal rev^tu de deux signatures, ou
bien d'une seule, confirm§e par un t^moin on par la deposition orale de deux
t^oins. lies prdtres, les ci-devant nobles, les ^migr^s, les agens, et les do-
mestiques de toutes ces personnes, subiront la peine de mort avec confiscation
des biens." This law was proposed by one of the two Trebonians of the reign
of terror and of the times of Buonaparte (Merlin and Cambac^r^) — by Camba*
c^r^, the prince of French jurists and parasites.

VOL. VI, 2 o

460 PIPTH PBBIOD. — SBCOND DIVISION* [CB. II*

Dumourier'i defeat at Neerwinden^ on the I9th of Maich 1793)
for it took place on the 85 th of the same month.

The feeolution respecting this new institution^ which we would
call the first foundation of the reign of terror, did not at first
arouse any suspicion that an oligarchy was to be founded upon
it* It was resolved, that a committee should be appointed to
watch over the public welfare* This committee was to consist
of twenty-five members^ who were to digest and bring forward
such laws as might appear to them desirable for the defence
of the republic against domestic and foreign enemies* The
members Were to meet at least twice every week, to summon
before them the ministers of whom the provisional commission
of govenunent consistedi and to call upon them for reports and
communications respeating the various departments of admini«>
stration, current eventsi &c% At first this college of government^
wluch was afterwards dividedi was no oligarchy, for it consisted
of members who iiad been taken from all partieSi who regularly
retired firom office imd were replaced by others^ without reference
to existing parties.

In the same way as Dumourier's defeat at Necrwinden gave
occasion to the appointment of this committeei the treason and
flight of the same general were made an excuse for taking another
8tep> which brought Danton and Robespierre much nearer to
the attainment of their ol^ect. On the 6th of April a law was
passed, according to which the committee for public welfare was
to consult apart from the committee for genml defonce^ which
was henceforwari called the committee of get^^al 9^fet$^ and
these two bodies were only to unite or to co-operate with others
in certain dangerous and pressing contii^ncesk The committee
of general safety was often called the committee of governmenti
because it alone in some measure exercised tiie executive power
and the functions of the high policci and only recognioed the
convention as the organ of those principles which the committee
were to apply% These principles, clothed In the garb of bills,
always proceeded from the committee ctf public welfare* This
body was at first to consist only of nine persons, who were to
dir^ all the movements of the executive power and consiantty
to Watch over itn operatioiis« The deliberations of the two com*
mittees were to be secret, and in pressing cases the committee of
public weifrdre alone was permitted to adopt the measures aeoes*
sary for the public protection. It will tlHis be seen that all the

§ II.] FRBNOH RBPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 451

scaffolding for the erection of the syatem of terror was ready^
when the majority of the convention still belonged to the Gironde,
and the girondists were still very powerful in the committees.

b. SECOND PERIOD. — FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC WELFARE TILL THE NINTH THBR-
MIDOR OF THE SECOND YEAR OF THE REPUBLIC^ THAT IS^
TILL THE 27th OF JULY 1794.

The government of the committee of public welfare undoubi*
edly gave to the internal administration and government, as well
as to the defence of the kingdom^ the full energy and strong im*
pulse of a people deeply imbued with the spirit of enthusiasm, and
led by bold and daring despots. This tyranny gave life to a new
generation and new institutions and customs ; but whether or
not all this was bought too dear^ our readers will be best able to
judge from what follows. We can never admit that the end jus-
tifies the means, although this doctrine is recognized even in
Rome, where the vicar of Christ rules, and in England, which is
under the dominion of the orthodox high church. The com-
mittee of general safety too, by energetic means and courage,
made France great in the same manner as a few ruling fiunilies
have made a few millions of Englishmen incredibly rich. Both
despised and at the same time appealed to the people, who are
starving in England, whilst some millions of their countrymen
live in the indulgence of royal luxury and splendour, extort wealth
from a hundred millions of Indians, reduce the Irish to the bor»
ders of despair, and consign to the misery of workhouses the
thousands of their own countrymen who have the misfortune to
be poor. These poor-houses are regulated so as to produce
miseries worse than anything which occurred in France during
the reign of terror $ for the measures of the reign of terror were
the suggestions of the moment and fitted for its engencies^
whereas the English bastilles are the produce of years of reflec*
tion and experiment, and have been and are annually discussed
in the plutocratic parliament.

The committee of general safety moreover was at first only
established for the period of a single month, and in the com«
mencement of its operations it was obliged to give a written re->
port weekly to the convention. This was the more necessary^
as it was the only means by which the convention could be made
acquainted with the state of the republic^ because all corro«

2o2

452 PIPTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH.II.

spondence was carried on through the committee, and it alone
was entitled to propose decrees relating to afiairs of administra-
tion. As long as a ministiy still existed, or an authority for the
execution of decrees {conseil ex6cut\f)i the committee performed
its functions through the medium of the ministers, but after-
wards immediately. The deputies of the convention, who were
Sent into the various departments with unlimited power, received
their instructions from this directing body. When we consider
the immense weight of labour resting upon a few members of
the committee, or reflect merely upon the signatures which it
was necessary daily to attach, we shall readily comprehend why
Camot at a later period in the military department, and the te-
nacious and laborious Robespierre and his cold and abstemious
companions, without trouble drove out Danton and his dissolute
and visionary associates, for whom such labours were by for too
onerous. Among the men who afterwards turned the committee
into a tyrannical oligarchy, there was not one of those who were
at first chosen in April, and the members who belonged to the
Gironde were also subsequently admitted : the committee was at
first wholly in the hands of Danton and his friends. The party
of violent republicans, who were called the Mountain^ from the
raised seats which they occupied in the convention, had no sooner
got possession of the government through the instrumentality of
the committee, than it was publicly declared that all those ob-
structions to decisive and energetic measures which were caused
by the mildness and moderation of men who had a prevailing in-
fluence in the assembly on account of their eloquence, must be
removed by the annihilation of the obnoxious individuals. At
first twenty-two deputies only were named as belonging to this
category, as persons who led astray the majority of the conven-
tion and the people also by their eloquent and persuasive speeches.
This design could not be efiected by ordinary means, and there-
fore it was found necessary to employ the same clamorers and the
same mob, called the people, to raise a public prejudice against
them, as had been previously employed against the king.

Among these clamorers, Marat was the most completely desti-
tute of shame. In the 'Ami du Peuple,' he daily encouraged the
reckless and bloodthirsty mob to murder the enemies of the Moun-
tain, or as he was pleased to call this section, \iit patriots^ and
held out to them plunder and robbery as an inducement, which
the commune of Paris, whose organ he was, could not decently

§ II«] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 453

do. When timea shortly afterwards became still worse^ Hebert,
in a jonraal called ^Le P^ Duchesne,' which was eagerly read
by the lower classes^ far outstepped Marat in the use of vulga-
rity and indecency, and in the audacious use of the awful lan-
guage of murderers, thieves, and the daily frequenters of wine-
shops and houses of iU-fame. Marat and innumerable members
of the committee of government and of the commune of Paris
secretly supported and paid clamorers and writers, and urged
the people of Paris incessantly to pour in petitions to the con-
vention beseeching them to expel the girondists from their as-
sembly. The signal was given by the same section of Paris
which had been tibe first to propose the deposition of the king,
and whose name was therefore changed from that of evil counsel
{du Maucanseil) to that of good {du Bonconseil). This section
having taken the lead, was foUowed by that of the Corn-hall
(Halle aux bl^s), which sent forward a representation in which
they formally appealed to the Mountain for aid against the
Plain, and found a favourable hearing among the deputies of the
former. Potion, as a girondist, belonged to that party whose
expulsion or death formed the object of the petition, and he
therefore insisted on the punishment of the originators of this
in&mous representation; Danton on the contrary proposed that
they should be treated as honourable ; but he did not go so far
as Robespierre, who could venture on a bolder declaration, be-^
cause he was not stained with those crimes by which Danton
was poUuted. Danton had sold himself to the civil list, and been
in close connexion with Orleans, Dumourier, and those knaves
who had been guilty of pillage and robbery in Belgium, in order
to secure some miserable gains. Robespierre appeared to the
people the very pattern of virtue, because he never enriched him*
self or sacrificed to his pleasures, but wholly to his ambition.

On this occasion therefore Robespierre came forward much
more openly and boldly than Danton ; in a long and dreadful
speech he ventured to demand that Orleans, and indeed the
whole family. Valence, SiU^ and their adherents, all the accom-
plices of Dumourier and the countess de Genlis, — ^and among
these accomplices he had Brissot, Vergniaud, Ouadet and 6en-
sonn^ particularly in view, — should be immediately summoned
before the revolutionary tribunal. And he had also long since
proposed, as he says, that a prosecution should at length be com-
menced against the queezu The time of this persevering and

454 FIFTH FBRIOO* — BBCOKD DIVISION^ [CH. lU

tenacious man^ who was wholly under the dominion of envy,
pride, and love of power^ had not yet fully come, and the accused^
who were men of far superior talents and possessed of a very
different description of eloquence from that of a tame advocate,
who was rich in words and phrases but poor in feelings and
ideas, ground him to atoms by their speeches, and his motion
fiuled. At that time however Marat was president of the jacobin
club, and during the debates on the petition to which we have
just referred, the convention was informed of a bold step which
he had taken with a view to aid his protector Robespierre. As
president of the club he drew up and signed an address to the
people, calling upon them to rise in insurrection, exhorting them
to save their country, and by one bold stroke to rid themselves
of the whole mass of traitors and conspirators against its welfare.
This indeed led the convention to issue a decree requiring Marat
to be put upon his trial, but this unhappily was moved by the
same Lacroix who contemporaneously with Danton had brought
disgrace upon the French name in Belgium ; from that time for*
ward therefore Marat became a man of great importance.

The prosecution of Marat gave the wretched man, when he
was acquitted, all the eminence of a martyr in the cause of
jacobinism in its struggle with the girondists, who had procured
the decree, after having sacrificed the principle of the personal
inviolability of the membera of the convention. It was the gi-
rondists in particular who on the 8th of April succeeded in cai^
rying a motioui that every one who was accused of a crime
against the nation should be put on trial befora the revolutionary
tribunal, and that deputies were not to be exempt from the
operation of the law. The decree against Marat, which was
passed on the 13th, kept all Paris in a state of excitement tiU
the 24th, on which day he was to appear before the court. On
the 15th, thirty-five out of the forty-eight sections of Paris sent
deputations to the convention, who were required to hand in a
formal denunciation against twenty- two of the most distinguished
of its members, and to support their appeal by audacious lan-
guage* The city continued for a whole week in a state of formal
insurrection, and on the 18th another petition was presented
similar to that which had been rejected on the 15th. Not-
withstanding the clamoura of the populace and in spite of the
threats of the commune, the majority of the convention cou-
rageously bade defiance to the Mountain, They not only paid

§ II.] PRBNOH RBPUBLIO TIU« JULY IfM. 455

no attention whatever to the petition, but loudly expressed their
indignation at the audaeky of its dechrations. As early as the
82nd^ another deputation from three sections of the iaubouif; St«
Antoine appeared at the bar, and among them Oonehon, a man
with the voice of a stentor, of braaen forehead and bold of speeeb^
who had been previously so often employed to appeal to the eon«
vention. In the name of the three sections he accused Vergniaud
and his fiiends as acoomplioes of Dumourier, and demanded thefar
punishment.

When the terror which they attempted to spread by means of
the people of the faubourgs fiuled in its effeet, measures were
immediately taken to make Marafa aequittal, on whioh they
reckoned with certainty, (because Fouquier Tinville already
held the office of public prosecutor, and both judgea and jury
were thorough jacobins,) the signal for a grand attack upon the
moderate deputies on the 98th. Fouquier TinviUe, one of the
very worst of those bankrupt lawyers who sought to make their
fortunes by violent jacobin opinions, and to whom murder was
an amusement, so framed the questions which he was obliged to
put to Marat in open court, as to enable him in his answers to
describe his accusers as the real enemies of the state, and that
in the presence of the wild and savage masses who filled the
hall, as well as all the streets and squares in the neighbourhood
of the court, and who had been organised and sent thither by
the commune and the jacobin club. One of the jury even went
so far as afterwards to pronounce a formal eulogy on Marat, who
was unanimously acquitted, and carried in triumph to the con-»
vention by the mob, who worshiped him as their idol. The
whole of this immense and angiy procession then marched
through the hall, and an orator, who was altogether worthy of
Maratt and had been one of the rude turnkeys of the unfortv*
nate king, delivered a speech on the occasion.

Robespierre and others who remained in the back-ground, and
coolly managed the machinery, willingly enough conceded to
Marat, who was nevertheless despised by them, the honour of
being the idol of the mob. They used him merely as an instru-
ment to destroy such of their colleagues as were not to be re*
strained by terror. The rest of the cowardly assembly afterwards
bowed with fear beneath their yoke, or like Barrfere and Camba-
c&rfes, the lawyers, even joined their ranks for money and good
living. We must not dwell on these scenes, to which especiaUy

456 FIFTH PERIOD^ — BBCOND DIVISION. [CH« II.

Danton's iriends gave occauon almost every day in April and
May^ in order to destroy their opponents, the moderates; we
shall merely remark in general, that they laid upon them the
whole blame of the prevailing anarchy, and alleged that their
speeches and resistance rendered unity of government a thing
impossible. Almost every day during the months of April and
May was distinguished by some extraordinary scene in the
streets or in the hall of the convention. One while a scene of
public pillage was exhibited; at another, an absurd law was
passed against the rich and aristocrats ; and again, attempts were
made to fix a maximum price for com or other goods. Some
new taxes were to be extorted exclusively from the wealthy, and
finally, patriotism was to be made compulsory* It might be sup«
posed that this savage demagogy and dreadfiil anarchy were the
fruits of such minds as those of Marat, Chaumette and Hebert,
but these low and hateful men were the mere tools of Danton
and his better companions. These men, who, properly speak-
ing, merely wished to protect themselves against the vengeance
of the outraged laws which their colleagues were eager to put
in force against them, at the same time saved their country^
founded a new species of freedom, and completely rooted out
the principles of the middle ages, which split the inhabitants of
Europe into castes. We cannot allow ourselves either here or
elsewhere to go into details, because we are not writing the spe^
cial history of the French revolution* ; we shall therefore merely
observe, that fi*om the beginning of April till the end of May,
a struggle for life or death was carried on between the two parties
in the convention.

The great object of the Gironde was to inflict merited punish-
ment on those robbers and murderers who had brought disgrace
upon fi'eedom and the revolution by their cruelties and their
crimes. They pursued their object with impassioned earnest-
ness, looked for help to the convention, and relied on the sup-
port of all just and intelligent men : the band, which was called
the Mountain, therefore employed the commune against the
convention, and the mob, with which every large city abounds,
against the respectable citizens. In order to assist the jacobins,

* The author, who must condense his materials as much as possible, in
order to close his work with the succeeding volume, feels it the less necessary
to go largely into particulars, as he can confidently refer his readers to Wachs-
muth's well-known work. Funk's contributions may be also profitably con-
sulted.

§ II.] FBBNCH RBPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 45^

revolutionary committeeB were organized in the different sections,
which either consisted of the men of September 1792, or of their
accomplices, and who could at any moment, on the slightest hint,
set all the desperadoes of their sections in motion. Each of
these committees consisted of twelve persons, and as the sections
amounted to forty-eight in number, there was thus an organiza*
tion of five hundred and seventy-six men, who in an instant could
call out in their respective quarters the whole fanatical and
savage masses, which were at once hated and dreaded by all the
respectable classes of citizens. By means of a cunningly devised
connexion with the commune of Paris, this insurrectionary in-
stitution became a species of public authority. On every occa-»
sion when those frequent tumults took place, the council of the
commune strengthened its numbers by calling in members of
these committees, in order, as it was said, to consult upon the
means to be taken for the safety of the nation ; these meetings
were also joined by some of the leading members of the jacobin
and cordelier clubs, who came uninvited ; and the mayor was
not ashamed to preside over such assemblies.

In addition to this assembly of the friends and defenders of
the Mountain, which held its sittings in the Hotel de Ville, there
was still another which availed itself of the necessities of the
moment, and the difficulty of providing for the care of the
capital in such circumstances, in order to devise the most dread-
ful plans. The latter held its sittings in the ^Sch^. Whatever
was resolved upon by this assembly and the revolutionary com-
mittees was afterwards confirmed by the commune of Paris, and
then those members of the convention, who were in fact the
originators of the whole, tormented their colleagues, until the
convention decreed what the commune of Paris wished. In this
way they succeeded on the 3rd of May in having a maximum
price fixed for com for a definite period. In the same manner
a forced loan was decreed, and the r^ular troops, which the con-
vention might have been able to employ against the populace,
all removed from Paris. An army, consisting of September
murderers and other desperadoes, was raised, under the pretence
of being sent into La Vendue, under Westermann, Rossignol
and Sonsin, but properly speaking to let loose those tigers whom
they wished to remove from the capital upon the country people,
who did not wish to renounce and forsake either their religion
or their king.

458 FIFTH PBB10D.«*8B00ND DIVISION. [CH. II.

During these dreadful disturbances, the eneif^r of the oligaiw
chical government, which neither shrunk from any crime nor
showed any mercy, became always greater and more terrible.
The committee of public welfare and the deputies with the armies
and in the departments had taken revenge on every act of dis«
obedience by dismissal or impeachment, before Robespierre^
Couthon and St Just became all-powerfuL The members of
the oamniHtee of public welfare, who were only appointed for
a month, because, property speaking, the whole committee had
been at first nominated only for the same time, succeeded on
the llth of May in having their former powers renewed and
confirmed. On the days immediately succeeding, the measures
devised by the commune and the sections for overawing the con-
vention were commenced, in order to force it to expel the mode*
rate members. The tumults in the streets and around the hall
of the convention continued almost uninterruptedly from the
12th till the l7th of May. The raismg of two jacobin armies
was extorted from their fears, one of which, as it was said, was
intended to keep the aristocrats in the city in order, and the oHxer
to be sent to La Vend^ and the frontiers of the kingdom. The
lives of the deputies, which were threatened by the minority of
their colleagues and by the populace of Paris, were exposed to
constant and imminent danger.

The deputies threatened by the jacobins at last turned for pro*
tection to their electors and the departments, and for a long time
things assumed an appearance as if the unity of the government
was really threatened, tlouen, Brest and Bordeaux ofiered to
send an armed force to Paris for the protection of their repr&>
sentatives; the Marseillese opposed the mischief which the
jacobins at the instigation of the Parisians began to perpetrate
in their city, and the Lyonese were revolted at the horrible
cruelties of a Charier, who, as it was said, had sent about 1500
men to prison. The convention was at that time still superior to
the violent jacobins. It praised the letter of the Bordelese, who
promised to rise en massey and to march partly to La Vendde
and partly to Paris, to act as a guard to their deputies and to
annihilate the anarchists. In reference moreover to the revolu*
tionary tribunals erected in Marseilles and Lyons, the conven*
tion decreed that all those citizens who were threatened to be
placed before such a tribunal were justified in offering resistance
by force. This caused a fearful struggle, and it now became

§ II.] FBBNCH RSPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794« 459

obvious, however melanoholy it might be, that the unity of the
government could only be maintained, and the royalists in La
Vendue and the enemies on the northern and eastern frontiers
could only be conquered, by the annihilation of one portion of
the deputies. The tribunes resounded with savage clamours, in
the hall itself the members proceeded almost to violence, and
Danton's friend, Legendre, the butcher, who was stronger with
the fist than in eloquence or argument, was ready at any moment
to strike ; Guadet however did not suffer himself to be deterred.
He depicted in such strong colours the dreadful immoralities,
the contempt for all shame and for every honourable principle
which his colleagues who visited the cordeliers, — such men as
Legendre the butcher, Laoroix the swindler, and Danton the
criminal,— exhibited, that he thought himself able to carry two
decrees in consequence of the feelings of horror which he had
excited, and which would have saved both him and his friends,
had not Barrere proved himself a traitor. Barrfere at that time
belonged to the girondists as he had formerly done to the con-
stitutionalists, but, like Talleyraod, Dumourier and Fouch^, he
had always the instinct to foretel the issue of a party struggle j
and he therefore sought to secure himself a place among the
conquering Mountain. Guadet proposed a decree by virtue of
which the existing council of the commune should be cashiered^
and a new one formed as soon as possible fix>m the presidents of
the sections. To this proposal he added that of a second decree,
by virtue of which the convention was to appoint a number of
substitutes for its members, who in case the present power was
put under constraint, might form a new convention in Bourges,
Barr^ warded off this blow from the terrorists, without first
breaking with the Gironde, who had still the majority in the
convention, and for this service he afterwards received a seat
among the oligarchy of terrorists, in company with Robespierre,
Couthon and St. Just*. He came hypocritically forward accordr
ing to his custom, and in the name of the committee of public
welfare, in whose name he also afterwards made many reports of
murders and assassinations in the same sweet and polished style
to which be was indebted for the nickname of the Anacreon of the
guillotine, and made a proposal which was to reconcile the par-
ties and meet the views of both. He proposed that a committee

* There Is not a word said of this In his ' Memoirs/ and merely some very
weak observations respecting the 31st of May.

460 riFTH PBBI0D.^-8EC0NI> DIVISION. [CH.Il,

of twelve should be appointed, who should be called Hatt-m-
apecton, and be clothed with especial powers for the protection of
the assembly; that to them it should be referred to examine the
resolutions which had been passed by the council of the com-
mune during the last month, and to report the result to the con-
vention. This commission could neither induce the minister Gaiat,
Pache the mayor, Chaumette the jn-ocureur, nor Hubert his sub-
stitute, to promote or fecilitate their inquiries} they discovered
however that the tools of the jacobins ware preparing a new in-
surrection. On their command, D'Opsen, president of a section,
Varlet, the Septemberist, and Hubert, the pure-minded substitute
of the procureur and tiie editor of the coarsest, most indecent
and profligate of journals (Le Phre Duchesne), were arrested.

Hubert's arrest became the signal for a long-prepared rising
of the masses, who had been in a condition of restiessness ever
since 1791. As early as the 26th there were tumults in all the
Btxeeta, and on tiie 27tii the hall of tiie convention was filled with
numbers of audacious men, who mixed with tiie membere and
even voted as if tiiey were deputies. On tiie subsequent day
the chair of tiie assembly was taken by Isnard, one of tiie gi-
rondists; but on the evening of the same day, after ten o'clock
H6»ult de S&helles, one of Danton's creatures, obtained the
presidency*} and when tiie timid portion of the convention had
yielded to tiie alarming tone and threats of the jacobins, he ven-
tured to propose to the meeting to pass flie decrees which tiie
tumultiious and msurrectionary mob had demandedf. It was
resolved tiiat tiie prisoners should be set at Uberty, and the
committee of twelve be called to give an account of their con-
duct. It was said, it is time, tiiat the aboUtion of the commis-
sion was at tiiat time also decreed, and it was beUeved to be tiie
fact } Meillan however denies it J, and for tiie same reason which

nnL*^/'^^'"''?*'^*^' "i*?^ ■*?«' P- «r : " • . . . H^wult de S&heDes,

Kffle Ti^^T^' ' ■• P'^'"^"'-'* «*«l««f°- 1"'" J avaitquelqne

t BariAre, M6m. vol. ii. p. 92, in speaking of the scenes of the SIst of Mav

l^&^^'^'^Jl *™' ^*'^ ••^ *«* 25th.-" Malhenreus^inl hS

«„i ^f"^ ^ **^ <*'^- .'823). P- « :-" .... La Montagne leconrnt
f^-Sf« """y^x- ^"?«'"T'«^«'"l^'rixcentsp^tionnaires.pre8quetons
^J^^'l^/'.r^P'^^'^t dans U saUe et dont une partie s^'^t avec
fnTnnT?! audac.ensement partager nos fonctions. S'U y e4t d&ret ce sont
nKpi S'S^ " ""• "^^"^ *"«^ * «^^ Vila ne .'en don-

§ II.] FRENCH BBPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 461

Lanjuinais established the next day in the assembly. He says^
there were persons not belonging to the convention who were
present at its sittings and voted with its members^ and it was
therefore expressly declared on the 28th that the commission
was still in existence. From this moment the jacobins and the
council of the commune had recourse to the use of the same
means against the Gironde which they had formerly employed
with such success against the monarchy. We shall not there-
fore dwell upon the disgraceful scenes and processions^ the
colours, emblems, and other peculiarities of vulgar mischief and
passion, but merely touch briefly upon the manner in which the
dregs of the popukce and the ofbcourings of the wine-shops for
a time represented the sovereign people.

In order to keep all respectable citizens away from that de-»
cisive assembly of the sections on the 30th of May, which repre-
sented the sovereign people, the assembly was not opened till
after ten o'clock in the evening, the time at which it should have
closed. Resolutions were then easily carried, that the peo-
ple were in a state of insurrection, and that for the deliverance
of the country, all the power committed to the existing author-
ities should be recalled. The magistrates were therefore sus-
pended from their functions, and an annoimcement made to the
council of the commune that the sovereign people had established
an insurrectionary council, whose sittings were to be held in the
SvSchS. lyOpsen, who had been previously arrested, was named
chairman of this new council ; Pache and Chaumette, who ought
to have resisted in the name of the existing order of things, ac-
knowledged the new authority, after Chaumette, for appearance
sake, had examined their powers. This sovereign insurrectionary
committee next caused the alarm-beUs to be rung in the night
between the 30th and 3l8t of May, having first however ap-
pointed a new commander-in-chief of the national guard instead
of Santerre, who had gone into La Vendue with a portion of the
revolutionary army. The new commander-in-chief was selected
from among the most desperate class. Henriot, upon whom this
post was conferred, which was regarded as the highest honour by
a man like Lafayette, had been originally a footman, afterwards
became a smuggler, then a toll-collector at the gates, and finally
a police spy. During the time in which he was engaged in these
various employments, he had been several times subjected to
criminal punidunents, but the conspicuous character which he

462 FIFTH PBRI0D.-~8B00ND DIVISlONt [CH. II.

had played in the September massacres now recommended him
to the enemies of the Gironde. The committee of public wel-
fare^ which had first received its dreadful unity in June^ but was
then composed of very mixed elements^ wished, it is true, to
adopt some very energetic measures on the motion of some of its
members^ but Danton's friend Lacroix found means effectually
to obstruct their intentions. It succeeded however in prevent*
ing the alarm-guns from being fired^ which were stationed on the
Pont Neuf. This however did not prove sufficient to divert the
insurrectionary committee from its course^and on the 31st of May,
the whole of Paris was in movement against the convention.

It is dear that it was merely the hired and servile mob, —
everything base, corrupt and wicked which a great city contains,
that proceeded to the siege of the convention on the 31st of
May, because the western sections of Paris, inhabited by the
most respectable and wealthy citizens (those of du Mail, Buiie
de9 MmMm, LepelMier and Champs Elysies), offered their assist*
ance to the convention and formed in military order with their
artillery at the Th^tre Fran9ais. The people in the streets also
remained perfectly quiet till a report was put in circulation that
the force of the sections at the Palais Royal consisted of royalists,
or at least were commanded by royalist officers, when some thou-
sand well-armed combatants from the fauboui^s St Marceau
and St. Antoine immediately marched against them. The people
of the faubourgs under Henriot no sooner came in presence of
the adverse sections, than they pointed their cannon against their
ranks and prepared for an instant discharge. It was found
necessary, in order to spare bloodshed, to mediate a reconciUa-
tion. Both parties promised to desist, and by that step the con-
vention was delivered into the hands of its enemies, for Henriot
was then left at liberty to march whithersoever he pleased.

The faubourgers, and together with them the whole body of the
people, marched to the Tuileries, and defiled through the hall of
the convention s their standard was a red cap, with other blood-
coloured insignia; ^the rights of man' covered with crape waa
dragged behind them, and during the whole of the procession
the damorers, who occupied the tribunes of the dosely^block*
aded convention, filled the hall with their threatening denuncia*
tions* The insurrectionary committee had sent commissioners
even into the various departments, and particularly into those of
the north-east After this dreadful prelude, the deputies of those

§ II.] FRBNGH RBPUBLIO TILL JULY 17M. 463

Bectiotu which had previously declared themselvea in a state of
insurrectioa q)peared at the bar. The new council of the com-
mune, the procureur 9yndic of the department, attended bjr the
whole council of administration^ and supported by the bellowing
of the tribunes, unanimously demanded that the commission of
twelve halUinspectors should be abolished, and that the deputies
who were objects of suspicion to the commune should be ex*
eluded from the convention. L'Huillier the shoemaker, who in
the character oiprocureut mfndie addressed the assembly on this
evening) must be acknowledged to have spoken much better and
more to the point than Legendre the butcher had ever done in
the convention*

The commission nevertheless would not have been abolished^
because the clamorers would not have ventured to have recourse
to force, had not the originators of the tumult come to an under*
standing with Barrdre, and had not he betrayed his former friends
into the hands of their enemies. Two members of the conven*
tion rose at the same time, Rabaut St Etienne to read a report,
suggesting means for the suppression of the tumult, and Barrere,
with serpent^like cunning, to mediate between things irreconcile«>
able, and to secure a momentary calm, although he well knew that
this would be of no permanent value. Rabaut was not sufiered
to proceed, whilst Barrere, in a smooth and hypocritical speech^
proposed the abolition of the commission ) the result of this
was, to deprive the convention of all protection ftx>m the pdice»
The proclamation respecting this matter which Barrire caused
to be issued on the following day proves what a master of
sophistry Barrere was, and what a brasen fi>i*ehead he possessed*
In this proclamation he represents all those acts of foUy and
madness, which only a few days before he had denounced and
prosecuted) as admirable actions^ and Uie promoters and perpe*
tmtors of them as noble-minded patriots. What was there now
to prevent those noble-minded patriots, to whom the conv^itkm
was given up^ from proceeding further? According to MeiUan's
account of tiie scenes of the 1st and 2nd of June^ a new insar»
rection of the people against the most eloquent and noblest
members of the convention was oiganised and caused by tht
committee of public welfare itself. Maral, who as usual was
nothing more than a mere tool, was the man who called upon
the council of malcontents to urge on the people to the murder
of his coiteagues^ and Leli^vre the cfaemiity in ortor to ante

464 PIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH. II.

his name dreadful^ was his faithful assistant on this occasion,-^
the same who after his journey in Germany was called {HoMen^
Jratz) the imp of hatred.

Public quiet remained undisturbed tiU the evening of the 1st
of June, although the drums beat to arms in the faubourgs : at
nine o'clock in the evening Marat was again active. He ap-
peared in the town-council^ called upon its members imme-
diately to place themselves at the head of the people, again to
blockade the convention, and not suffer its members to depart
tiU those deputies who were suspected by the commune were
impeached. He next proceeded to the tower and sounded the
alarm-bell, and the ruffians whose services were required had
been already taken into pay. Under the pretence of being con-
stituted into a revolutionary army, each man received two
francs a day from the public treasury ; and provision had even
been made for their sustenance, in order that the mob might
not become weary of the siege or suffer from hunger. At the
commencement of the blockade on the night between the 1st
and 2nd of June, the members under the ban were not present
in the convention, and the whole humber of those in attendance
was not sufficient to form a quorum. The siege however was
prolonged, even after the members had separated at midnight.
The commune arranged their forces around the haU, in the gar-
dens of the Tuileries, and on the Place Venddme ; in all these
places the mob was abundantly supplied with bread, wine^ and
other provisions.

On the 2nd of June, which was a Sunday, the majority of the
suspected deputies did not venture to appear in their places;
Lanjuinais alone, who came forward on all occasions which de*
manded courage and noble sacrifices in the cause of morality
and justice, was not to be deterred on this occasion also from
performing his duty. His eloquence so put the miserable and
desperate originators of the disorders to shame, that they had
recourse to physical force. Legendre and Drouet presented
their pistols at the breast of their colleague, and drove him from
the tribune. Henriot had collected all his vagabonds together^
in the name of the commune put in requisition a battalion of
newly-recruited soldiers, and stood with his cannon and can-
noneers ready for action at the chief entrance to the hall. Bar-
rere again played the character of a hypocrite, but was exposed
by Lanjuinais and held up to scorn^ as he deserved to be* He

§11.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 465

perceived that his colleagues hesitated, and were ashamed to de-
liver up the most honourable defenders of the rights of the
people into the hands of such men as Marat, his accomplices,
and the mob ; and he therefore now proposed on the 2nd, that
the stupected deputies, for the sake of peace, should witJidraw of
their own accord, Lanjuinais replied to the proposal in the way
which its meanness deserved. On this occasion Marat played
the character which Lacroix, Barrere, and particularly H^rault
de S^chelles, who was always made president in such cases, did
not venture to play, because they had still some honour to
lose ; Marat however had none. The former pretended to leave
nothing undone to protect and save the accused; Marat, on the
contrary, went continually out and in ; sometimes encouraged
Henriot, sometimes stimulated and cheered on the populace, and
sometimes had recourse to threats within the hall. At length
the whole convention went in procession from one door to another
to prove that they were really in a state of siege, and indulged in
all sorts of speeches and declamation ; all this however we must
pass over, together with the numerous anecdotes, phrases and
witticisms with which the French histories abound. The con-
vention, after having been kept for twelve hours in captivity, at
length yielded to the demands of the jacobins, and passed a
decree which one of them proposed.

Couthon, who brought forward the decree, in virtue of which
he and his accomplices became absolute rulers in France, had
the audacity to allege that it was the result of free deliberation,
although every one knew that two-thirds of the deputies refused
to vote, and that many persons not belonging to the convention
were mixed up with those who gave their suffrages. The decree
which was passed on Couthon^s proposal was to this effect : —
That the twenty-two deputies mentioned in the decree, and
together with them Claviere, minister of finance, and Lebrun,
minister of foreign afiairs, should be placed under arrest in their
own houses, and therefore under the surveillance of the gens
d^armes. The names of the twelve hall-inspectors were added
to those of the twenty-two deputies who had been so long objects
of popular dislike, so that, properly speaking, thirty-four deputies
in all were subjected to this infamous decree. All the friends of
those persecuted individuals met with the same fate, particularly
as the departments, whose representatives had been expelled,
began to prepare for war instead of proceeding to new elections,

VOL. VI. 2 H

466 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. lU

and seventy-three other deputies ^idthdrew firom the assembly^
because speech was no longer free nor life safe. These seventy-
three even protested against all the decrees which had been
passed in their absence, and thus fulfilled the wishes of the
jacobins, as it was undoubtedly a crime against the nation to
place the country in a condition in which it could no longer pass
binding laws. These seventy-three deputies were therefore also
arrested, by virtue of a decree of the 3rd of October 179S* A
part of them escaped death through Robespierre, because he
wished to spare them as a counterpoise to Danton, whom he then
became desirous of destroying*.

As Meillan informs us, the thirty-four deputies who were ex-
pelled on the 2nd of June held a conference among themselves,
and resolved to send some of the boldest among them into the
departments, some of which had previously shown an inclination
to take up arms in their favour. Several of them in this way
escaped an immediate persecution in Paris, of whom P^tion^
Barbarous, Guadet, Louvet, Oorsas and Henri Lariviere first
hastened to Caen, to organize an insurrection in Normandy
against the tyranny of Paris, for the commercial cities of the
south had already taken up arms. Lyons, Marseilles and Toulon
had declared themselves ready to oppose, with force of arms, the
municipality of Paris, which was tyrannizing over the conven-
tion ; Bordeaux had followed their example ; Meillan and Du-
chatel went to Rennes, in order to rouse the towns of Brittany
to action. The Oironde in this manner furnished the jacobins
with the much-desired pretence of being able to accuse them of
federalism and of weakening the national power, and thus justi-
fying all the cruelties perpetrated upon them.

Meillan -endeavoured to make Rennes the centre of an insur-
rection of all the citizens of Brittany, because Nantes, in the
difficulties of the peasants of La Vend^ and the royalist no-
bility, could do nothing more than promise assistance in money

• We do not give the names of these deputies^ because we are not writing
a special history ; Uiey will be found however in the appendix to the ' M€-
moires de Louvet' (ed. 1833). In pp. 321*>326, the names are first given of
" ceux> qui pendant la deuxihne annee de la r^publique fureot assassin^ par
les tribanaux des decemvirs ou re^urent la mort en resistant k leurs agens, ou
r^duits k la demidre extr^mit^ se tu^rent eux-m^mes." Then, p. 327, follow
the names of " ceux qui ^chapp^rent k la proscription pronono6e contre eox
aoit k r^poque du 2 Juin, soit au 28 Juillet, soit au 3 Octobre 1793, et qui
furent rappel^ dans le sein de la convention par les d^rets des 17 Frimaire,
IS Ventose et GerminaU H^laa ! ils ne sont que vingt-qoatre."

§ II.] F&BNOfl REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794, 467

and their friendly sympathy. There appeared also in Rennes
plenipotentiaries firom Maine> Morbihan and Finisterre; Meillan
however clearly admits, that at last the whole reaction to which
they succeeded in giving life was confined to Marseilles, Bor-
deaux, and seven or eight departments of Normandy and Brit«
tany, because the insurrection in Lyons, from the very first,
assumed a royalist character. We subjoin Meillan's words in a
note, merely for the purpose of showing that Caen was the centre
of the preparations which were made in the departments of Eure,
Finisterre and Calvados against the Parisians'*'. The armed
national guards were to march to Paris, but unfortunately two
officers were chosen as commanders, one of whom belonged to the
old regime and the other to the constitutional monarchists. These
were Wimpfen, who had previously been a member of the national
constituent assembly, and Puisaye, who had served in the royal
army. The nomination of these two men to the chief command
was quite enough to awaken mistrust in the minds of the citi-
zens in these times of universal suspicion, and to take away all
desire on their part to risk their lives in a cause already become
suspected. The consequent and practical men therefore, who
insisted first of all upon the destruction of the whole former
system, necessarily prevailed over the philosophers, who were
desirous of erecting a new edifice before the time out of the
heterogeneous mass of existing materials.

The army which Wimpfen was to lead from Caen to Paris,
where there were at that time no troops of the line, was ap-
proaching the capital from the 13th till the 15th of July, and
had reached Vernon, when it became obvious, that neither the
deputies who had raised the insurrection^ nor the commander,

* Meillau, pp. 7Ar-7^» " La moutagne ^toit en place. Elle commtndait
aux ministres, elle disposait des finances, elle se couvrait du simnlacre de la
Convention. Avec ces moyens r^unis, elle pouvait ordonner, s^nire, ^poa-
▼anter, corrompre et tromper : et nous n'avions que lea moyena de pennaaion.
Aussi la pluspart des d^partemena se born^rent-ils bient6t k des vcenx st^riles.
Chacun voulut attendre le succ^ des premieres tentatives avant de donner
suite aux arr^t^ qu'ils avaient pris dans le premier moment. Bient6t il ne
resta plus en activite que Lyon, Marseille^ Bordeaux et sept ft huit d^parte-
mens normands ou bretons. Encore Lyon n'agissoit-il pas dans les mSmes
vues, quoiqu'il agit dans le mdme sens. Biroteau, mon coUdgue, qui fut pris
et d^capit^ en Octobre & Bordeaux, me dit pen de jours avant sa mort, qu'tont
all^ k Lyon ainsi que Chasset, dans la persuasion ^ue cette ville n'armait que
pour la liberty, ils n'avaient pas tarde k d^couvrir que les meneurs avaient
d'autres vues et qu'en consequence ils s'^taient tons deox empress^i d'en
•ortir."

2h2

468 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

could place reliance on the national guards. The Parisians had
despatched only a few gens d'armes and national guards to meet
and oppose the insurgents at Vernon ; these latter however did
not wait for a serious attack, but fell into disorder and were
scattered on the first fire. Only a single battalion firom Brest
retired in military order; the others indeed were afterwards col-
lected at Evreux and Caen, but it was found impossible to keep
them together. Wimpfen concealed himself in Bayeux and
escaped persecution ; Barbaroux, Louvet, Salles, Bergoing, Le-
sage, Cussy, Giroust and MeUlan, after a thousand dangers
and adventures, reached Quimper, where their friends provided
them with a small vessel to convey them to Bordeaux. Buzot,
Guadet and Potion did not venture to trust themselves to the
firail bark, and therefore lost their Uves in a melancholy manner.
The men of the Mountain availed themselves of this unfortunate
attempt on the part of the republicans, and harassed and per-
secuted them from the Seine to the Loire, and fix>m Paris to
the extremities of Brittany, as they persecuted and destroyed
the royalists on the farther side of the Loire. They sent com-
missioners into these departments, who at first subjected hun-
dreds and afterwards thousands to judicial murder. Just at the
right time, Robespierre and his adherents got rid of their instru-
ment Marat, who would soon have become burthensome to them.
They feigned sorrow for his death, and idolized him as a martyr,
and thus furnished the people, who were now deprived of all
religious fStes, with the opportunity of holding one in honour of
Marat.

A young and beautiful girl in Caen, named Charlotte Corday
d'Armans, had become so rapturously inspired by Barbaroux in
favour of his ideal republic, and at the same time so charmed with
the beauty of his features, and impressed by his declamations
against the dreadful Marat and the hell-hounds of whom he was
the organ, that she resolved, at the sacrifice of her life, to rid
the world of this inhuman monster. According to Meillan^s
account, this young woman, without being previously known or
giving any account of her design, presented herself before the
deputies who had fled to Caen, and obtained a note from Bar-
baroux to a fiiend in Paris. Had he suspected her intentions,
he would have undoubtedly warned her of the folly of her enthu-
siasm, and of the ruin which her plan would entail upon the good
cause. She hastened to Paris, was admitted to an interview by

§ II.] FRENCH KEPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 469

Marat^ although he was in the bath^ and was there stabbed to
the heart by this republican heroine on the 13th of July. On
her trial and at her execution (on the I7th of July), she displayed
a degree of presence of mind and of republican enthusiasm to
which we cannot refuse our admiration, but which we can scarcely
venture to praise. The wicked and irreligious adherents of Marat
afterwards exhibited the most blasphemous scenes ; they bore his
contemptible carcase to the Pantheon ; David, with a degree of
horrible sympathy with his subject and power of execution, painted
the scene of his murder, and the cruel murderers of their fellow*
citizens caused this picture to be hung in the convention, the
scene of their blasphemous and wicked consultations.

We shall refer only to the most important of the disturbances
excited by the republicans in other districts besides Normandy
and Brittany, and that very summarily. In Lyons, even before
the end of May, the public had refused obedience to the com-
missioners from the convention ; on the 9th of June, Marseilles
and Bordeaux declared themselves against the faction which
was tyrannizing in the convention, and immediately afterwards
united respecting a common expedition to be undertaken for the
relief of the city of Lyons, which was severely oppressed by that
faction. In this city, the workmen and the poor were the only
adherents to the cause of Jacobinical repubUcanism ; the great
manufacturers and the rich citizens in general were identified in
their interests with the nobility, and collected around them a
number of clients, who willingly adopted their cause and de-
fended them against the rude masses, because they were the
sources of their comfort and prosperity. The mob were under
the guidance of a Piedmontese named Chalier, who was a
Lyonnese Marat. Chalier had been first a priest, then a trades-
man, and finally became president of the jacobin dub, and in
this character he was not ashamed to point out to the people,
whose idol he was, by means of placards on the walls, the names
of those citizens of vll classes who were to be put to death from
feelings of patriotism. In his correspondence with Marat he
informs him, that Legendre, Bazire and Rovere, who had been
sent by the convention to Lyons, were by far too moderate, and
expresses his dissatisfaction because they were too sparing of
blood. These deputies, chosen from among the most violent
members of the convention, had been sent to Lyons in February,
because the citizens, who had become embittered against jaco-

470 FIFTH PERIOD* — IBOOND DIVISION. [OH. II.

binism and its emissaries, had dispersed the central dub, torn
their papers and scattered them to the winds, burnt down the tree
of liberty, and sent away the bust of Rousseau. This occurred on
the 4th of February. What had been commenced on the 4th
was completed on tiie 18th, because it had been discovered that
Chalier and his fanatics had devised a plan for the murder and
piQage of their opponents. In order to anticipate the wicked
design of the jacobins, the departmental council organized a
regular battalion of respectable citizens to oppose and put down
Chalier and his sans-culottes, and the three deputies considered
it advisable not to provoke a civil war.

The members of the Lyons club expected at that time, from
the personal characters of the deputies sent to them, some mea-
sures of dreadful severity to be put in force against the moderate
party; the deputies however merely reinstated the jacobin club
and established its correspondence with Paris, wiUiout perpe-
trating any of those bloody cruelties on their opponents which
Chalier so eagerly desired. The consequence was that he suc-
ceeded, through the influence of Robespierre and Marat, in ob-
taining their recall. This occurred at the time in which four
deputies, among whom were Dubois Craned and Albitte, were
sent to the army of the Alps ; and those deputies received a
commission from the convention incidentally to give a fresh im-
pulse to the cause of jacobinism in Lyons. They there com-
menced a violent contest with the departmental administration,
were anxious to erect a revolutionary tribunal, and to set on foot
what was called a revolutionary army. This contest, which was
carried on at the same time as the life and death struggle in
Paris, led to a formal civil war, because the deputies ordered
soldiers to be sent from the army, and the department organized
regular battalions of citizens. The citizens and jacobins came
into armed collision in the city of Lyons on the 29th of May ;
after a great deal of bloodshed the jacobins were defeated, their
protectors driven out of the city, and the originators of the
cruelties practised against the citizens called to a strict account.

This reaction in Lyons against the jacobins assumed a royalist
character ; and although the strife in this city was contempora-
neous with the expulsion of the deputies from the convention^
none of the flying deputies made common cause with the Lyon-
nese. The latter however took a bloody revenge on the jacobins,
but regulated their vengeance according to the judgements and

§ II*] FBBNOH BBPUBLIG TII«L JULY 1794. 471

law of their courts of ordinary criminal judicature. Cbalier was
condemned to death on the grounds of the murderous plot
of the 6th of February, the bloodshed of the 29th of May,
and particularly of the inhuman and merciless placards which
he had caused to be posted on the walls*, and was executed on
the 16th of July. This event occurred at the very moment there<-
fore when the dreadful faction, which had ruled with unlimited
dominion in the convention from the beginning of July, was
filled with the most savage and murderous rage against their
opponents after the victory gained at Vernon. As early as the
1 1th, the convention had issued a decreet respecting the disturb-
ances in Lyons, which had been hitherto quite unpandleled^ and
Dubois Craned, who was a notorious drunkard, received com«
mands to lead a portion of the army of the Alps against the
devoted city.

Under these circumstances, there was nothing left to the
Lyonnese but the last means of despairit. Fr^ron and his com-
panions threatened Marseilles and the whole of Provence with
the same cruel visitation as Dubois Craned did Lyons; the con-
sequence was, that all the citiet of the south accused of fede-
ralism united to lend assistance to Lyons. According to a plan
quickly devised, the armed forces of Bordeaux, Limoges and
Clermont were to form a junction in Perigueux, and from thence
proceed to Bourges, where they were to be joined by the bat-

* We shall here quote the words of a repablican, who says of him,—
*' Probe dans sa vie priv^e et brigand dans sa vie publique, il pr6che le meurtre
et le pillage ; impose des taxes arbitraires et laisse les ex^cuteurs de ses vo-
loot^ en recueillir les fruits sans y prendre part lui-m6me/' He accompanies
this with an accoont of his behaviour towards the sections which were hostile
to his mob. " II ne parloit que d'^gorger 20,000 citoyens. La liste des 800
habitans de cette ville qui, le 9 Mars 1793, avaient demand^ aux commissaires
de la convention des assembles des sections, fut affichte par ordre de Chalier
sous le titre de B&imok de$ pairiote$, pour le» dinger aur la mer du civUme, U
fit placarder une autre liste de 82 p^es de famille, n^gocians, ^piciers, faian-
ciers, ferblantiers, boulangers, cordonniers, cabaretiers, en accompagnant
chaque nom des ^pith^tes les plus injurienses. II ne poursuivait pas senle-
ment les nobles et les prdtres ; les mod6r6s, les accapareurs, les usuriers, les
avou^, les gens de loi ^talent aussi des aristocrats k ses yeux."

f This decree, almost in so many words, invites and encourages those who
have nothing to fall upon and plunder the rich ; it runs as follows : — " Sont
d^titu^s et declare trattres A la patrie tous fonctionnaires de cette ville cou-
pable, &c. &c. Tous les biens des conspirateurs seront s^ueetr^ ; et aussi-
t^ que la confiscation voulue par la loi sera prononc^e par le trlbuxial rdvolu*
tionnaire, la repartition en sera faite entre les patriotes indigens et opprim^s.
Tous paiemens des sommes dues h. la ville ou aux habitans demeurent provi-
soirement suspendus/'

t Una salas victis^ nullam speraia salutem.

472 PIPTH PBRIOD.--SECOND DIVISION. [CH, II.

talions from Marseilles^ Nismes^ Montpellier and Avignon, which
were previously to be collected in the last-mentioned city. In
Aries also the jacobins, stimulated by the deputies of the con-
vention, had committed gross acts of oppression against the citi-
zens, and the Marseillese wished to render them also incidental
help, but they were so long detained, that the troops of the con-
vention anticipated them by taking possession of Avignon. This
circumstance proved decisive of the civil war. Cartaux, the
leader of the convention troops, gained on this occasion a mo-
mentary reputation ; but it afterwards appeared that Buonaparte
was quite right, when he declared, in spite of the capture of
Marseilles, that Cartaux, from being a bad painter, had shown
himself to be a much worse general. By the occupation of
Avignon, the western departments were completely insulated,
the whole department of Gard again became subject to the con-
vention, Bordeaux was left to its fate, and the dreadful emis-
saries of the faction domineering in Paris were furnished with
the wished-for pretence for shedding torrents of blood and
changing the whole state of afiairs.

In Marseilles, as well as elsewhere, the hesitation and tender-
ness of all the opponents of Danton and Robespierre, who fol-
lowed an indefinite object, showed their insufficiency to cope
with the dreadful unity and energy of the ruUng faction. The
different sections of the city of Marseilles were absolutely en-
gaged in struggles with one another in the streets, at the very
time in which the army equipped by the city under Villeneuve
had taken possession of the heights of Gavote, Sabragoule^
Sept^me and Roquevaire, in order to prevent the army of the
convention from advancing through the passes between these
hills. Cartaux, who was followed by whole crowds of jacobins
like birds of prey, had at first only some 1500 men belonging to
the army of the Alps under his command ; Poultier and Albitte
however, as commissioners from the convention, soon ordered
6000 men from this army, with whom they advanced rapidly
against the heights occupied by Villeneuve's forces. From this
time Marseilles suffered from this army, the continual contests
carried on between the sections in the city, and from oppressive
want, because both Toulon and Marseilles were closely blockaded
by an English fleet. The Marseillese sent repeatedly to the
English admiral to declare that they too, as well as the English
admiral, were at war with the convention j they could however

§ II.] FRENCH RBPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 47S

obtain nothing, because they could not make up their minds, as
the people of Toulon did a few days after, to give up their port
as a pledge into the hands of the English.

Shortly before, the rage of the demagogues in Marseilles had
been greatly increased, in consequence of a defeat which they
had suffered in the streets and the squares of the city. On the
23rd of August, the army of the Marseillese sans-culottes fell
upon the battalions of respectable citizens ; both prepared for
action on the Place des Pr^cheurs, and a formal Encounter took
place. The jacobins were defeated, and blood flowed in streams
during the whole night in the streets. Two days afterwards, on
the 25th, Cartaux made an attack upon the Marseillese army
under Villeneuve, which was posted on the heights of Septeme
and Sabragoule. The cannoneers in ViUeneuve's army, on whom
everything on this occasion depended, were selected, as was
usually the case, from the lower classes, who had an entirely dif-
ferent interest from the higher; they therefore not only forsook
their guns, but actually hurled them down into the passes which
they were intended to protect. The citizen army dispersed, and
Villeneuve was compelled to surrender the town to the troops of
the convention, but saved himself and 1500 men by taking
refuge in Toulon. Many of the most distinguished people of
Marseilles also fled to that city, and contributed in no smaU de-
gree to persuade the Toulonnese to secure the assistance of the
English and Spaniards, who were then blockading both Mar-
seilles and Toulon by sea, by placing their harbour and arsenal
in the power of their allies.

Juan de Langara, the Spanish admiral, and Hood with his
English fleet, who had hitherto cruised with their combined
forces before Toulon, took possession of the city and port on
the 28th of August ; Hood however alleged, as die English are
accustomed to do, that negotiations had been carried on with
him alone, and therefore seized upon all the ships in the harbour
and the naval stores in Toulon. The convention and the jaco-
bins gained far more with the whole nation, in consequence of
the declaration of the English that they took possession of Tou-
lon in the name of a person wholly unknown to the people, Louis
XVII., than by the victory at Septeme. We shall not dwell on
the cruelties practised in Marseilles and elsewhere by the vic-
torious faction longer than is necessary in order to point out the
measures adopted by the convention at different times to anni-

474 FIFTH PBBIOD, — BBCONO DIVISION. [CH. II»

hilate every remnant of the old rfyime, and to change the whole
order and condition of things. Poultier and Albitte commenced
those scenes of murder, robbery and destruction in Marseilles,
which were carried on and completed by Fr^ron and Ban-as.
Frfron erected a revolutionary tribunal without a jury in Mar*
seilles, and selected the refiise of humanity for his judges,—
criminals who had been condemned to the galleys on account of
their transgressions. The very men whom IV6x>n appointed
as judges in his revolutionaiy tribunal had been shortly before
guilty of putting multitudes of innocent people to death during
ihe contests in the city, impelled.merely by their cannibal appe-
tite for blood and murder. It almost appeared as if the com*
missioners of the convention would annihilate the city itself and
even the harbour. Executions were of daily occurrencci and the
destruction of bmldiiigs continued for months, whilst Fr&on
dated his reports to the convention, acoordiiig to the savage style
of his times, not from Marseilles, but from commune unnamed.

The insurrection in Lyons against the convention was re-
garded as a royalist movement, although the majority of the
brave and persevering men who defended the city from June
till October unquestionably did not belong to the adherents of
the old system. The chief leaders and the most of the officers
had certainly served under the royal government and were fii^
vourable to the monarchy. General Pr&y commanded the
whole, and Chenelette, a very experienced engineer-officer, pre-
pared the plans of the trenches and other works which were
hastily thrown up for defence ; both had very able officers under
them. Dubois expected to be able to reduce the town either by
a simple blockade, or by promoting disunion and strife among
the royaUsts, republicans and jacobins within its walk ; he how-
ever soon found himself deceived, and saw that he must have
recourse to a regular siege. For this purpose Kellermann was
ordered to march to Lyons with a division of the army of the
Alps, and Dubois Craned himself undertook the direction of the
artillery. He, as well as his brother (both of whom bebnged to
the old nobility), was a skilM engineer, when his love of intoxi-
cating liquors and his jacobinism did not render him inaccessi-
ble to reason. His brother, who was neither addicted to drunk-
enness nor a jacobin, had rendered most important services to
Dumourier, and ib often mentioned by him in terms of strong
approbation.

§ XI.] VBSNCH BSPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 475

Dubois Craned directed his fire expressly against that portion
of the city which he called the aristocratic quarter, because he
could thus assail and destroy palaces and houses, streets and
squares celebrated for their beauty and magnificence throughout
the whole of Europe. His shells destroyed the quarters of fif/.C28ir
and Bettecaur, the harbour du Temple, and the streets MereHre
and Twrpbfu He was recalled from Ids command; but the four
deputies by whom he was replaced, after the taking of the dly,
conducted themselves in a still more incredible manner than he
had behaved before its reduction, when there was at least some ex-
cuse for the destruction which he perpetrated, because he wished
to get possession of the place. Lyons was no sooner taken than
Barr^ proposed in the convention that the city and its inhabit-
ants should be annihilated ; and if this was not reaUy done, the
name at least was completely changed. Immediately afterwards
the paralytic Couthon caus^ whole rows of houses to be pulled
down and the people to be shot in masses. CoUot d'Herbois,
Laporte and Fouch^, who were Couthon's successors and in-
struments of the vengeance of the convention, tyrannised and
raged like their predecessor. Some idea may be formed of the
destruction which was perpetrated and of the multitudes who
were massacred, when it is known that the executions, the fusil-
lades, and the destruction of public edifices and private buildings
were continued till April 1 794. We shall hereafter have occasion
again to refer to the cruelties which were exercised by such
monsters as Carrier, Tallien and Lebon upon the inhabitants of
the south, west and north of the kingdom, to avenge the dis-
turbances which had been raised by those who were filled with
horror and indignation at the dreadful events which took place
in Paris in the commencement of June. Carrier gave full scope
to his passions of cruelty and revenge in Nantes, and Tallien in
Bordeaux ; Lebon in Arras, and Maignet in the department of
Vaucluse, attempted to follow the same course. The latter caused
the village of Bedoin to be reduced to ashes, and forbade any one
even to visit its ruins under the penalty of death. In Orange he
appointed a committee of the people, as it was called, whose sole
object seemed to be to root out and destroy every individual or
family, except such as belonged to the very lowest classes.

Even Toulon, which was supported by the naval force of the
English, experienced the dreadful energy of the revolutionary
government of a warlike people, now moving fireely in their

476 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

mighty and was again united to the kingdom. Two circum-
stances attach an unusual interest to the reconquest of Toulon :
the first is^ that Napoleon Buonaparte on this occasion gave the
first remarkable evidence of his great military capacity, and made
his name known throughout all Europe; and the second, that
after the taking of Toulon, the fortune of war changed in favour
of the existing government in other places also, and from that
time forward, with few exceptions, remained true to the repub-
lican armies. On the reduction of Marseilles, the convention
ordered Cartaux to blockade Toulon from the west, whilst Bru-
net, who was in command of the army of Italy, was directed to
send a division to invest the city on the east. Brunet despatched
Lapoype on this service, and his threatening march to SoUi^s
had the effect of driving whole multitudes of men into the city :
this increased the want within the walls, and was the chief cause
of the surrender of the harbour and fortress into the hands of
the English and Spaniards on the 27th of August. The English,
who firom this time conducted the defence, kept the republicans
firom approaching Toulon tiU September, by strongly fortifying
the narrow pass of Oullioules. The capture of this pass has
always been regarded as one of the most celebrated deeds of the
times of the revolution and has been usually ascribed to Cartaux :
this general however can hardly have contributed much to the
successful result of this enterprise, because he proved himself to
be wholly incapable, when at the head of the army of Italy in
the year 1 794. In January of this year Brunet had been brought
to Paris as a political delinquent, and the command of the army
devolved for a short time upon Cartaux. He had only been in
service since 1789, and was previously a painter of very moderate
pretensions ; but on this occasion he had among his officers, in
addition to the young Corsican, Napoleon Buonaparte, such men
as Dammartin, Laborde, Almeras, Vautrin and Dupas, who con-
ducted the attack upon what were supposed to be the impreg-
nable works at Oullioules in such a masterly manner, that the
English were obliged to retire completely within the fortress on
the 8th of September.

During the attack on the post of Oullioules, Dammartin, who
was in command of the artillery, was wounded, and Buonaparte
was entrusted with the further conduct of that service. From
that time Toulon was closely invested, for Lapoype had ad-
vanced through Sollies and his troops formed the left wing of the

§ II.] FBBNCH BBPUBIilG TILL JULY 1794. 477

besieging anny, whilst Cartaux was at the head of the right. In
the direction of the artillery of the army of the convention,
Buonaparte exhibited the same talents and the same energetic
determination, combined with quickness of perception and a
rapid judgement of what the nature of the case demanded, which
afterwards made him master of Europe. The plans which Car*
taux was to execute had been sent from Paris, where Carnot was
then at the head of the war department. These plans were
drawn up by the celebrated IKAr9on, but more than six weeks
elapsed before Cartaux could effectually complete his junction
with Lapoype. According to the plans sent from Paris and the
system of a regular siege, from which Cartaux did not wish to
deviate, a speedy reduction of the fortress was not to be ex*
pected; Buonaparte devised other means. From the com-
mander-in-chief he turned to the all-powerAil deputies of the
convention, and in their case displayed a talent by which he
stood pre-eminent above all his contemporaries, — ^the power of
his mind and character in bringing high and low into subjection.
He proved to the deputies that the speedy reduction of Toulon
could only be effected by the means which he pointed out, and
they assisted him in their execution. Cartaux, who did not ap-
pear bold enough, was honourably removed from the command,
and Doppet also, who did not enter into Buonaparte's views, was
politely transferred to another place. Dugommier adopted the
plan, and Toulon fell on the 19th of December.

The capture of the city was ascribed, not merely by reports, or
by the newspapers which spread reports, but even by the depu-
ties of the convention, Ricord, Salicetti, the younger Robespierre,
and Barras, who were present at the siege, much more to Buona-
parte, then twenty-three years old, than to the brave and able
Dugommier, the commander-in-chief. Before the English sur-
rendered the city, the defence of which they had undertaken,
they first shamefrdly robbed it of all the ships and naval stores
which had been entrusted by the kingdom to the city, and which
the latter had only put into the hands of the EngUsh as a pledge*.
The English had no sooner withdrawn, than Barras and Fr^ron
entered upon the horrible execution of those laws which the com-

* When the English found themselves obliged to sarrender Toulon, which
they had not conquered, but merely taken possession of at the request of the
French, and for their tue, they burnt the arsenal and stores, twenty vessels of
war, among which were eleven ships of the line and six frigates^ and took
fifteen oUiers with them ; only thirty-two were left behind.

47S FIFTH PBRIOD. — 0BOOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

mittee of public welfare at that time wrote in characters of blood.
The whole body of the citizens of property were allured to an
assembly upon the Champ de Mars, when a concealed battery
was suddenly unmasked and the inhuman tyrants fired upon
them with chainnahot. As to the following executions, Frdron
himself, in the excuses which he afterwards made against the
complaints of his numerous accusers, most bitterly laments that
of 10,000 persons, he had only caused 800 to be executed.

The bloodshed in Toulon, Marseilles and Lyons very far ex-
ceeded that which Tallien caused in Bordeaux, although he
there condemned and executed more than 150 heads of families.
Maignet^ who, as we have already stated, had established one of
these murderous commissions in Orange, being afterwards called
to account, the executioner who had been chiefly employed de-
dared before the court, that more than 318 persons had been
beheaded in this small place. The terror which Frdron spread in
Toulon was so great, that the population, which, as appears from
documentary proofs, had shortly before amounted to 28,400
souls, sunk to 7000, because all had fled who could make their
escape. The tone of the times and the spirit by which all these
murders were dictated may be best learned from Banas's letters
to his colleagues in the convention ; from a man therefore who
was descended from one of the oldest families of the south, after-
wards became a director, and as suchoneof theruknof France,
and who afterwards sold himself to the Bourbons. He writes,
^Ihavefinmd no req}eeta6le people fhofmttei gem) in Toulon^ ex-
cept the ffaUey^laves'* We regard this as the most oonvenient
place to give a summary account of the civil war which had been
raging in La \end6e since the mcmth of March 1793.

Jn La Vendue the jacobins, who were consequent after their
fashion, found that they had a class of persons to deal with very
diffisrent fit>m the sentimental visionaries, and from the artisans
and shopkeepers of the towns anxious about their lives and pro-
perties; they found that they had to contend, not with enthusiastic
and unpractical Platonists, bat with the unity of frmaticism, the
courage of despair, and the energy of irremediable pr^udice^.

* We re£er to the eventi of this war m cunorily as to the still less inport-
ant diapiites whidi followed the struggle in Paris from the 31st of May till the
9nd of Jone^ for reasons previously assigned. The accovots ooataioed ia the
* CollectioD des Mdmotres siur la R^olution/ to which innumerahle others
might be added, are the foUowing : first, the ' M^aoires de Madame de Bon*

$ II.] PBBNOH BBPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 479

The movement in La Vendue originated in the flat countiy of
the former Poitou^ covered with hedges and underwood^ and in the
whole district near the mouth of the Loire. In this country the
peasants as well as the landowners were thoroughly dissatisfied
with all that had taken place in Paris, because, according to the
nature of their tenures (as Metayer) j the peasants shared the
produce of the soil with the landlords, and enjoyed precisely the
same description of education as they did, because there was
here no court nobility, but the simplicity of ancient times. Both
the nobles and peasants therefore were warmly attached to their
priests and their worship. Moreover, when the peasants were
afterwards obliged to institute communal administrations, the
seigneurs were universally chosen as mayors, and when a gene-
ral arming was commanded, the same persons were appointed
chiefs of the national guards. The first sign of their resistance
to the Parisians was exhibited on receiving a law firom Paris, by
virtue of which the distinct and honourable seats in church occu-
pied by the seigneurs and their families were ordered to be re-
moved ; this law however was not carried into execution. None
of those priests who had taken the oath to obey the civil consti-
tution of the dergy {conitiiution civile du clerge) were admitted
into their churches, and as early as August 1792, forty parishes
were disposed to take up arms. The execution of the king in-
creased these feelings of hatred and indignation, and the con-
scription of the sons of the peasants for the defence of the na-
tion, after the abolition of the former method of recruiting, con-
verted dissatisfaction and hatred into civil war.

The republicans wished to compel the peasants to obey the
law, and the consequence was resistance, and the peasants ha-
ving made themselves masters of the cannon of the republicans
planted against them, at two places widely distant fix>m one an-
other, on the 11th of March 1793, a general insurrection ensued.
Charette, a licentious naval officer, acted on this occasion as
leader of one part of the insurgents, and conducted himself like
a hero, till he again sank into degrading indulgences ; the pea-
sants in Lower Poitou on the contrary compelled monsieur de
Bonchamp, one of their seigneurs, to place himself at their head.

champ/ completely royalist ; the ' M^moires de Madame de la Rochejacqaelin^'
of the same character ; aod the ' M^moires de Madame de Sapinaud/ There
are others in the coUiction which are moderate in their spint and well-sus-
tained. The ' M^moires du G^n^ral Toneau' are thoroQg^y jaoohinical.

480 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH. II,

The war was carried on amidst all the difficulties of a countrjr
intersected by numerous hedges and ditches^ with roads almost
impassable and very small fields ; and in the very commence-
ment of the war, two persons of humble condition exhibited
such distinguished abilities^ that they shared the command with
men of the first houses in La Vendue.

D'Elb^e, Bonchamp and Larochejacquelin^ three of the chief
leaders^ belonged to the old nobility of the countiy; of the two
others, Cathelineau was a rich peasant and carrier, and Stofflet,
of German descent, had been formerly forester to a monsieur de
Maulevrier. The two individuals last-mentioned raised the spirit
and courage of the peasants from the 11th till the 15 th of March,
by the seizure of artillery and ammunition and the capture of
Chollet Immediately afterwards the national guard of Fonte-
nay, consisting of townsmen, who were everywhere favourable to
the revolution, was defeated. These had previously plimdered
Chantonay in the department of La Vendue. The whole of La
Vendue, Loire Infi^rieure, and Maine and Loire, now renounced
obedience to the convention. Carra and Auguisi, the deputies
of the convention, attempted to restore obedience by recourse to
force; but their unreasonable cruelty and tyranny produced
merely a state of despair.

As early as April 1793, we find D^Elb^ acting as generalis-
simo of a cathoUc and royaUst army as it was called, at the head
of a very considerable force, and the country of the malcontents
partitioned out into military divisions. Commandants were
named to take charge of these military sections ; Larochejac-
quelin, D^Antichamp, Bonchamp, Domagu^, Cathelineau, and
Stofflet were allotted to Anjou and Upper Poitou ; Lescure,
Talmont, Duhoux and D'Auterive ruled in the interior; and
Charette, Savin, Joli, &c« in the Bocage or Lower Poitou.
These officers possessed a great advantage over the republicans
in being thoroughly acquainted with the country and always re-
maining in command, whilst the republican generals were unac-
quainted with this extremely intricate district and were perpe-
tually changed. Witenkofi*, Menou, Berruyer, were recalled one
after another, and with good reason. Qu^tineau was taken pri-
soner on the 3rd of May by the royalists, who surprised the
town of Thenars and succeeded in capturing twelve pieces of
cannon. They did all in their power to prevail upon Qu^tineau
to join their ranks, but found it impossible to induce him to for-

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 481

sake the republicans ; notwithstanding this, he was afterwards
executed in Paris. The republican generals ahready named were
succeeded by Boulard, Baudry, Canclauz and Beysser, who were
somewhat more fortunate than their predecessors. When Cha-
rette attempted to advance, he was completely defeated at Fon-
tenay on the 14th of May, and lost the whole of his artillery ;
he avenged himself however upon his conquerors nine days
afterwards. Bonchamp, Larochejacquelin and Lescure had hast-
ened to his aid, and with these reinforcements he made a new
attack upon the republicans, took Fontenay, and on this occa-
sion obtained possession of forty pieces of cannon. On the 10th
of June the royalists gained a new victory. Larochejacquelin,
Domagu^, Cathelineau and Stofflet defeated 20,000 republicans,
under the command of Santerre and Menou, at Saumur, and
crowned their splendid victory by the capture of the castle. The
capitulation of Saumur brought 3000 prisoners, 80 pieces of
cannon and very considerable magazines into the hands of the
royalists, who unhappily were encouraged by their brilliant suc-
cesses to entertain the unfortunate idea of making an attempt to
reduce the city of Nantes, the chief seat of republicanism in the
west of France.

These iU-armed and badly-equipped peasants of the districts
west of the Loire, who marched under Cathelineau, D'Elb^e,
Bonchamp and Charette, were heroes in their own country ; but
they were indisposed to go far from their homes, and were nei-
ther fit to encounter regularly disciplined troops in the field, nor
to besiege a populous town, even although unprotected by walls.
When this peasant army, 40,000 strong, passed the Loire, Ca-
thelineau was chosen commander-in-chief; D^Elb^e, Bonchamp
and Charette served under his orders; on this occasion, how-
ever, the last of these generals displayed the envy and malice of
a vulgar and contemptible mind. The citizens of Nantes were
inspired with the same feelings of fanatical devotedness in favour
of the repubUc, with which the nobility and peasants who at-
tacked them were filled against it', general Canclaux, who had
the command of the city, was an able officer, and succeeded in
frustrating the mad and desperate attacks which were repeatedly
made on it from, the 27th till the 29th of June. The royalists
suffered great losses, Cathelineau was killed, and the total de-
struction of the assailants appeared unavoidable, because they
could not reach their villages again, and one portion of them

VOL. VI. 2 I

482 VIFTH PBRIOD.— SECOND DITISIOIf. [CQ. II.

was driven to Niort and another to Ancenia. The chief reason
which has been assigned for this defeat is^ that Charette^ from
a feeling of envy towards D^Elb^^ remained quietly on the left
bank of the Loire.

Had not people like Menou, an officer of the olden times^
Santerre^ owner of a brewery in the faubourg St. Antoine, and
even Biron, who was at that time at the head of these repub«
lican masses, been persons wholly unfit for their office, and had
not Danton's friend, Westermann, who in one year had risen
from the rank of a sergeant to that of a general, spread uni-
versal despair by his cruel devastations and executions, the cause
of the royalists would at that time have been completely lost.
They did not however yield to despair, and as soon after as the
17th, the republicans under Biron were attacked and defeated
by them at Vihiera. Biron was immediately recalled by the
ruling men of terror; but the general who was sent to ooeupy
his place was, both in a military and moral point of view, equally
unfit and unworthy. Ronsin, who had made shipwreck as a
writer of miserable tragedies, and had, in intimate connexion
with Danton and Marat, first rendered important services to
jacobinism during the September massacre, had then been ap*
pointed chief plundering military commissioner in the Nether-
lands and assistant to the minister of war. At a time when
murderers were regarded as pre-eminently qualified for public
offices, and revolutionary energy was in demand, this man was
appointed general of a revolutionary army, and as such sent into
La Vendue. He there not only ravened like a tiger for the blood
of his enemies, but he also recommended the appointment of
Rossignol, the journeyman goldsmith, who boasted that in the
September massacres he had cut down a considerable number of
prisoners with his own hand, to the command of a division of the
revolutionary army instead of Biron. Even general Turreau,
whose memoirs are important as regards the history of the war
in La Vendue, by furnishing a Jacobinical source to compare
with so many of an opposite character and tendency, and who
calls himself, even at the time of his transportation in 1800,
a sincere friend of the fanatical and raving republican Rossig-
nol, is obliged to admit, that his friend Rossignol was of no
use whatever.

Rossignol brought with him the very dregs of Paris, dignified
with the name of a revolutionary army ; it was sent into La

§ IJ.] FRBNOH BBPUBLIC TII.L JULY 1794. 488

Vend^, precisely on the same principle as locusta or wolves
might be let loose upon a countiy abounding in vegetation and
flocks. The rulers in Paris wished to be rid of this ferocious
band in the capital. Rossignol} Ronsin> and the atrocious
Parisian vagabonds by whom they were surrounded, perpetrated
burning, murder, and cruelties of all kinds whithersoever they
went. -^ . Turreau and Westermann, of whose military talents no
doubt can be entertained, infused such a universal feeling of de-
spair, by what was called their hellish columns, which desolated
the whole country by fire and sword, that the royalists would
have been finally victorious but for the arrival of practised and
disciplined armies, commanded by experienced and able generals.
The republican armies and generals, which completely changed
the whole state of affiura in La Vendue, consisted of the nu*
merous garrisons of Mayence and Valenciennes, which had been
surrendered to the allies by capitulation ; but their garrisons were
allowed to go free, without having any conditions imposed either
as to their employment against the allies, or against the royalists
in the interior of the kingdom. The allies were compelled to
pay dearly for their neglect, for Camot was now enabled, with-
out any breach of the agreement, to withdraw all the bad troops
6N>m hsL Vendfc and to send them to the firontiers, where, mixed
up with others, and placed under new and better generals, they
did good service; the hardy and disciplined garrison troops
marched into La Vend^.

Even whilst Rossignol continued to eiyoy the chief command,
the garrison and troops, and especially such men as generals
Aubert Dubayet, Kleber, Haxo and Saint Suzanne, gave a com-*
pletdy new turn to the war^ and would have infallibly brought
it to a conclusion by a firiendly agreement with those who were
conquered by them in l79Sf had not the ruling fiictioa in Paris
selected only such men for the chief command aa insisted upon
a system of vandal desolation. Ronsin and Rossignol were
indeed recalled, because their inability to discharge their duties
was obvious, but Westermann was appointed in October 1793
in their stead. This general caused aU the cruel and unparal-
leled laws * of the convention to be most brutally carried into

* On th« Ist of Augaat* when tbe garritoo of May«ace was Mat to the
Loure« the oonvention 4«€reed: " 1. 11 aera envoy^ dana La V«Qd6e par le
mini&tre d« la fame dea mati^ea combuatiblea de toute eapdce pour incendier
lea bob, lea taillis, lea genets. Lea forita aeroat abattuea, lea repairea des

2i2

484 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CB.II.

execution^ and by this means embittered the minds even of that
part of the population which had hitherto remained neutral^ or
as general Turreau expresses it^ lukewarm. Notwithstanding all
the burning and desolation practised by the republicans^ the
royalists were quite safe, protected by their impenetrable under-
wood, and entrenched behind the hedges and ditches by which
the country was traversed in all directions, till they sufiered them-
selves to be persuaded to give ear to a man of distinction, who
led them to their ruin.

The self-conceited, but wholly inexperienced prince de Tal-
mont conceived the idea that a union with the English, and
with those emigrants who had put themselves under the pro-
tection of England, would prove the safety and deliverance of
the peasants, which never could have been the case ; and the
peasants allowed themselves to be persuaded. The protection
of England is an excellent preservative for English people, but
it certainly never has proved advantageous to others. Women,
children, and the whole power of La Vendue crossed the Loire,
in order to make themselves masters of some harbour in Brit-
tany, and from thence to maintain a union and intercourse with
the English. This was the more foolish, as they had very
shortly before been discouraged by two defeats, and could only
hope to find protection behind the cover of their hedges and
ditches, whilst in the open field they must fall a prey to their
opponents. The royalists had been completely beaten on the
15th of October at Tremblaye, and on the 16th at Chollet; and
instead of the deliverance which they foolishly hoped to obtain
by crossing the Loire, this necessarily resulted in their discom-
fiture, because they thereby openly gave themselves into the
hands of their enemies. Bonchamp and D'Elb^e, the latter of
whom had done all in his power to prevent this ruinous resolu-
tion, were both wounded, the former mortally and the latter

rebelles seront ditruits; les recoltes seront coapdes par des compagnies
d'ouvrien pour ^tre port^ but les derri^es de Vaxm6e, et les bestiaux seront
saisis ; les femmes, les enfans et les vieillards seront conduits dans rint^rieur."
Turreau, who speaks of all these measures as admirable, admits, that the
whole country was encompassed by a girdle of fire ; that fire, terror and death
preceded the army on its march ; lliat as the columns advanced, cities, towns,
villages, single houses, castles and huts fell a prey to the flames; and that the
woods and forests were destroyed by fire. But all this did the royalists little
injury. Their army principally consisted of peasants, the only part of whoae
possessions which could be destroyed was that which lay on the road of the
army : for farther the republicans could not venture.

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 485

dangerously^ in the succession of contests which took place on
the 1 7th, 18th and 19th of October, when this unfortunate mul-
titude of brave and honourable men, by passing the river, ex-
posed themselves to the attack of an enemy in eveiy respect
their superior. Those with arms in their hands fell bravely
fighting ; the unfortunate women, children, and unarmed men,
who had joined their companions in arms, were mercilessly cut
down. The remnant, wholly cut off from their homes, were either
slain at the attack on Angers on the 13th of December, or cut
.to pieces near and in Ancenis on the 2drd and 24th of December
1793. Only a few hundreds succeeded in recrossing the Loire
and reaching their homes. From that time, what had previously
been a determined civil war assumed a completely altered form ;
and from being a contest for monarchy and Catholicism, which
the convention was desirous of extirpating in the west, it became
merely a plundering foray.

Bonchamp, lyElb^, and Larochejacquelin were properly
speaking the heroes of the old principles and customs and
of the ancient monarchy ; the first fell in the passage over the
Loire ; the virulent enemies of royalism caused the second to be
shot, although he was confined to bed by a mortal wound ; the
war was afterwards carried on by Charette and Stofflet after
their own fashion. AU ideas of knightly gallantry and mag-
nanimity now disappeared firom both sides. These officers had
formal bands under their authority, and by their courage and
perseverance very often reduced the disciplined armies and
able generals which had been sent against them since August
1793 to a state of great perplexity. Qeneral Haxo shot himself
when he found there was no hope of escape from being taken
prisoner; but general Turreau, who succeeded him in the com-
mand, continued to burn and to destroy till the tyranny of the
committee of public welfare came to an end, and a milder system
obtained the sway in Paris.

Those to whom the government was entrusted aft^r the re-
volution of the 9th Thermidor, conferred the chief command of
the army upon general Canclaux, and sent deputies from the
convention, not to destroy, but to adopt measures of reconcilia-
tion, and to endeavour to gain the minds of the people by kind-
ness. We shall hereafter refer to the manner in which this
reconciliation was prevented, and the peace broken by the cun-
ning devices of the English ministry and the folly of the emi-

486 FIFTH PBRI01I.-^«B00ND DIVXIXON. [OH. II.

grants^ when we come to apeak of the landing in the bay of
Quiberon in June 1795.

The system which was pursued in Fxvnoe from the 2nd of
June> if we only consider its effects^ was the most admirable
which could have been conceived to create a new generation of
men^ firmly to establish new customs, institutions and lawB> and
to give new France the dominion over decayed and rotten
Europe ; but when we think of the means which were used and
of the men who employed them, this system was the most
accursed and wicked of which the history of the world can furi-
nish any example. The whole power of the government was
concentrated in the committee of public welfare, from the time
in which every man who could ofier any resistance to the two
combined parties of jacobins was either expeUed, annihilated, or
so completely terrified as to acquiesce in everything which was
commanded by the reigning faction.

The committee of public welfare was confirmed in its func-
tions for the fourth time on the 10th of July, but at the same
time it was on this occasion completely renewed. Shortly before
this time the committee had been increased by the addition of
three members; it was now however reduced to its original
number of nine, or rather, as this was only momentary, to ten.
The chief instrument of government under this committee was
the revolutionary tribunal. The committee of general safety also
had in reality only a subordinate character, for it was not called
to give counsel, but merely to receive commands. The conven-
tion itself had lost one*third of its members, and no one was now
sufiered to speak of filling up the vacancies by the election of new
ones. The meetings of the convention were of no importance^
because their only business was to give the form of laws to the
decrees recommended and proposed by the committee of pubUo
welfare. The committee ruled public opinion with despotic power^
issued commands to the commune of Paris, organized and con-
ducted the system of demagogy indispensable to this description
of government ; and the reports which it submitted to the con-
vention, in order apparently to comply with the law, were very
summary. Before the 27th of July 1793 there were some diffe^-
ences of opinion in the committee, but from the day on which
Danton took his seat, and Robespierre afterwards entered on the
27th and continued to maintain his ground, Robespierre, Cou-
thon and St. Just became the unquestionable rulers of France.

§ lit] FBBNOH RBPUBLIO TILIi JULY 1794. 487

The only man ^ho could have dared to offer any resiatance waa
Camot, who became a member of the committee on the 13th of
August I but they judiciously left to this estimable and able man
the whole conduct of the war department, by which his mind was
so ftdly occupied and so completely withdrawn from other affairs^
that it was too kte before he became aware of the abuse which
his colleagues were making of the power with which they were
entrusted. Camot and the three men of terror were constantly
members of the committee from the 27th of July ; the others,
whose names are given in a note*!*, were also members from
December 1793 till July 1794, but only alternately with others
who belonged to Robespierre's faction.

It was necessary that the revolutionary tribunal should also
be composed of men as energetic as the members of the com-
mittee, and for this purpose people were always foimd who be-
longed to the old riffime | for all the horrors of the revolution
were perpetrated by men trained in the old schools, and not by
the populace or people of the new age ; the people served merely
as a hammer or sword. Such old servants of ministerial de-
spotism were quite accustomed to the use of every species of
injustice and to the invention of language fitted for the deeds.
Montana, the first president of the revolutionary tribunal, was
removed, because he could not resolve to condemn general Cus-
tine, whom he believed to be innocent. He was succeeded by
D'Opsent, whom we have already mentioned as a companion
of Marat; then followed Herrmann, and after him Coffinhal;
these men were all jurists. The next in order was Dumas, a
theologian, and formerly a monk of the order of St. Bernard.
Fouquier, who was procurew* to the Parisian criminal court
called Ch&telet, has rendered his name infamous to all posterity
by his conduct as public prosecutor before the revolutionary
tribunal. His substitutes or deputies were Rouyer, who had
previously been a priest, and Naulin, a jurist. The marquis, or
more properly speaking, chevalier d'Antonelle, formerly a cap-
tain in the regiment ^ Bassigny,' was the permanent foreman of
the bloody jury, each member of which received a daily allow-
ance of eighteen francs. As we cannot go into the particulars
of these affairs, and do not wish to confine ourselves to strict

• From August 1793, the following members were re-elected from month
to month t Maximilian Robespierre, Bftrr^e, Billaud Varennes, Camot, Col-
lot d'Herboia^ Plrieur^ landetf Coathon^ St. Jast> and Jean fioa do St. Andrtf.

488 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

chronological order in referring to these scandalous deeds of
murder^ we shaU satisfy ourselves with stating the number of
executions which took place during a series of months in Paris,
from which a conclusion may be drawn of the extent to which
this horrible practice was carried in the rest of the kingdom.
From March 1793 till June 1794, 576 persons were con-
demned and executed in Paris ; and in the two months of June
and July, 1285 underwent the same fate. The jurors also, like
the convention, were nded by terror, for according to the law
of the 26th of Jime, which enforced open voting, they were
either obliged to condemn the accused, or to place their own
lives in jeopardy.

Whilst civil war was raging throughout the whole kingdom in
June 1793, it was thought necessary to deceive the people with
the hope of obtaining from the free will of the convention what
the expelled deputies had endeavoured in vain to obtain by force ;
for this purpose recourse was had to a shameless and obvious
trick, which however was attended with complete success. The
convention declared that it would now at length promulgate the
democratic constitution, whose completion had been hitherto
obstructed by the deputies of the Oironde.

For this purpose, the draft of a most absurdly democratic and
thoroughly impracticable constitution, which Condorcet had
made in Februaiy, was again brought forward, and a commis-
sion was named to prepare, with as much expedition as possi-
ble, a new constitution, of which this draft was to form the basis.
The head of this commission was the same lawyer, H^rault de
S^chelles, who was uniformly placed in the chair of the conven-
tion when any unworthy and degrading resolution was to be
adopted. It has been alleged, that the one hundred and twenty-
four articles of which this constitution of the first year of the
republic consists, but which was never brought to life, were for
the most part drawn up in a coffee-house, which may very pro-
bably be true, from the haste with which the whole afiair was
executed. As early as the 10th of June, the new constitution was
communicated to the convention ; fourteen days afterwards it was
examined and approved; as early as the 24th of June it was taken
into the departments by commissioners named for the purpose,
in order to be laid before the primary assemblies for their ac-
ceptance. An examination of constitutions, or even a minute
account of their contents, does not belong to this work ; we shall

{ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 489

therefore merely state bow the farce, which H^rault de Sechelles
and his fellow-actors played with and for the French people,
ended. As may be easily supposed, the constitution was ac-
cepted in the primary assemblies, and was to be proclaimed on
the 10th of August. For this purpose the celebration of a
grand ftte was arranged for the above-mentioned day, in the
Place de la Bastille, such as we have now seen every month, for
a few years past in Germany, and as pompous in form and de-
stitute of inward truth as these usually are.

Ducis the poet, at the command of the convention, composed
for the occasion an ode, which was printed at the public expense.
This ode was in fact a song, which was much better suited for
blood-thirsty cannibals than for educated Frenchmen. Statues
of Nature and of various other allegorical beings, of colossal
size and formed of pasteboard, were publicly exhibited at the
fSte, and H^rault de S^helles delivered a speech in poetical
prose, which was admirably in keeping with the pasteboard
statues. The theatrical mummery which followed as festivities
was completely in character with this beginning. Of the con-
stitution, on account of which all this parade and absurdity had
been got up, not a single word was spoken, as the committee of
public welfare found themselves secured in their tyranny by the
reduction of Lyons. This city was taken from tiie 9th till the
10th of October, and on the 11th the convention brought to
light those decrees which had been long prepared by the revolu-
tionary government. The decree in which the constitution is
declared to be in abeyance and adjourned till peace was con-
cluded, was passed at a sitting at which there were scarcely
eighty members present ! ! Its terms were as follows : —

" The provisional government of France is to continue revo-
lutionary till a peace. The provisional executive council, the
ministers, generals, and all the public constituted bodies, are
placed under the superintendence of the committee of public
welfare, which shall be accountable to the convention. The
commander-in-chief of the armies shall also be appointed by the
same] committee.^' This decree proceeded neither from a H^-
rault de S^helles, a Robespierre, nor a Barrere, of whom the
former of the two last-mentioned concealed his envy and pride,
and the latter his mean thoughts under a mass of verbiage and
phrases, but from St. Just, who was driven on in his course by
genuine republican fanaticism, and an enthusiastic admiration of

490 FIFTH PBBIOD.-^ SECOND DIYIglON. [0H« II*

Rou8seau» Like Danion and Camille DeBinoulins^ St. Juat
preached, from conviction, the doctrine, that in a revolution
the principle must be maintained, that everything ie to be ffmned
by bold and adventuraua action. He expressed this doctrine
with such fearful clearness and energy in the introduction or the
report by which the proposal of the decree is preceded, that it is
only necessary to quote a single phrase in order to give a cor-
rect idea of the material contents of the whole*. With such a
government everything was possible. Everything old was
thoroughly eradicated ; Buonaparte and the restoration may have
brought back the appearance of the old r^ffime, but the essence
and spirit were gone ; and Louis Philippe and the Jesuits will
never be able to re-establish it. If we merely refer cursorily to
some of the laws enacted by that government, it will immediately
become obvious whither the energy exhibited at that time must
necessarily leadt This spirit has been imitated in our own times
by the Russians in Poland, because they had precisely the same
objects in view which Robespierre, St. Just and Couthon so
eagerly followed in France.

Among these, the law respecting the prosecution of suspected
persons, and the numerous dass of persons who were included
in this category, first claims our attention f. This decree was
issued on the 17th of December, and on the 3rd of October it was
followed by another, wherein it is expressly said, that political
offenders were not to be regularly tried, but as a rule were merely
to be placed before the court. This was succeeded by another^
in virtue of which, a great number of the noblest defenders
of moderate freedom, the best portion of the convention^ then
the duke of Orleans, and finally queen Marie Antoinette, who

* He says to his colleague^ in the convention, " Voos n^aTeas plus rien k
manager, contre tes snnemia du nduvel ordre dea chases^ e/ la tibertS doU
tiaificr« d telpriu que o« «otV."

f " tmmediatement apr^ la publication da present d^ret, tons les gens
suspects qui se trouvent sur le temtoire de la r^publique, et qui sont encore en
liberty, seront mis en ^tat d'arrestation. Sont r^putls suspects ceux qui« soit
par leur conduite, soit par leurs relations, soit par leurs propres Merits, sesont
montr^s les partisans de la tyrannie ou du f^d^ralisme, et ennemis de la liberty ;
ceut qui ne peuvent Justifier de I'acquit de leurs devoirs civiques» ceux k qui il
a M reius^ des certificats de civisme, ceux des ci>devant nobles> ensemble les
maris, les femmes, p^res, m^rcs, fils ou filles, fr^res ou soeurs, et agens d'^mi-
gr^s, qui n'ont pas constamment manif^st^ leur attachement t la revolution.
Les tribunaux civils et criminels pourront faire retenir en ^tat d'arrestation
comme gens suspects et envoyer dans les maisons de detention ci-dessus
^nonc6es les pr6venus h regard desquels il serait d^clar^ n*y avoir pas Uea k
accusation ou qui seraient acquitt^s de celles portte contra eux."

§ II.] FABNOH RBPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 491

had been tormented bj a long imprisonment, although com-
pletely innocent of all political crimes, were to be placed before
the court'!'. The queen's trial was commenced as early as the
12th of October, on the 15th she was condemned to death, and
executed on the 16th. On the Slst of the same month, twenty-
one republican deputies were executed. Hie duke of Orleans,
as it was said, fell a sacrifice to the separation between the two
parties of jacobins which was then taking place. It was said
that Robespierre's adherents would willingly have saved the
queen, had they not been prevented by Danton's party; and
tiiat in revenge the former insisted upon the execution of the
duke of Orleans as eagerly as he was protected by Danton and
his clique. The duke was beheaded as early as the 6th of No*
vember. In November the form of government, which had
hitherto been called interim or revoluiianaryy was also reduced to
a system. The system of terror, which was maintained in France
till August 1794, was reduced to the form of an ordinance by
Billaud Varennes, and on the 8rd of December approved by the
convention on the motion of Bazire. When this took place,
the number of political prisoners in Paris amounted to 4830*

From this time the convention itself was of no further use
than merely to pass decrees, and to form a theatre for the ex*
hibition of scenes and speeches, which were calculated to pro-
duce an efiect in the newspapers ; the real power of the state
was completely in the hands of the committees. The com-'

* We shall quote the decree respecting condemnation, which was also
passed on the 3rd of October, word for wotd i that retpectiog those who were
to be condemned, only partially. " En cas de partage d'opinion,'' it is said in
the former, " dans les proems sur les d^lits r^volutionnaires, I'avis le plus doux
ne doit pas pr^aloir. En cons^uence, toutes les fois que les Juges d'un tri-
bunal criminel seront partag^s, lis seront tenus d'appeler Un cinqai^mc jage
pour les d^partager." The other decree first charges tweoty-one deputies
with " conspiration contre I'unit^ et rindivisibilit6 de la r^publlque contre
la liberty et la stlret^ du peuple Fran^ais.'' The accused were not confined
to such men as Brissot and Vergniaud, but contained among them reckless
democrats, such as Carra and Fauchet. There were also subtle systematixers,
such as Condorcet, and finally Philippe £galit6 and his extravagant com-
panion, Sillery-Genlis. These forty^one persons were to be placed before the
revolutionary tribunal. In addition to these, the decree anects twenty-one
others, who had been previously declared traitors to their country. Among
these, together with Potion, Buzot and Gorsas, was such a blameless man as
Lanjuinais. Moreover the seventy-four deputies who had secretly protested
against the resolutions of the Slst of May and the 2nd of June, were arrested,
so that 136 deputies were at once afl^ected by this decree of condemnation.
On the same 3rd of October, the convention ordained by another decree^ that
the queen's trial should be commenced without delay and carried on without
intermission.

492 l^IFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

mittees of public wel&re and of public safety governed in a revo-
lutionary manner; the committee of diplomacy managed foreign
affidrs ; and in the legislative committee the whole business of
drawing up laws^ which afterwards formed the basis of the Code
Napol^on^ was the more willingly delegated to the great jurists^
Cambaceres and Merlin^ as they were both at that time fanatical
jacobins. Every town and village had its clubs in imitation of
Paris ; the deputies of the convention^ who were scattered over
the whole country^ oppressed the distinguished and the rich in
order to elevate the lower classes, or rather to avail themselves
of their services and support for a time. These classes, or as
they were called, the sans-ctdottes, assembled in the sections of
Paris, where they received forty sous daily for their attendance,
and assumed the name of the '' sovereign people.'^ In order to
give a veiy brief view of the subject, we shall compress into a
few short sentences a description of the government established
by the decree of the 4th of December.

Ten individuals now ruled France with absolute power : they
were chosen by the convention, and had the unlimited disposal
^of the lives, properties and liberties of their fellow-citizens. In
the execution of their measures, they enjoyed the aid of a tribu^
nal which decided upon life and property without trial, without
appeal, or even the permission of defence to the accused. On
the command of these ten individuals, every citizen was com-
pelled to take up arms, and under the penalty of death to per-
form all those services which were required, and at a remunera-
tion fixed by the government. Whenever a plenipotentiary of
the convention, or a member of one of the committees appeared,
the power of all other authorities for the moment ceased, and
the law was silent, or in other words, the will of the indivi-
dual became the only law. By virtue of the law against sus-
pected persons, to which another was afterwards added, all those
who were either suspected or connected with suspected persons
were to be extu*pated without distinction of age or sex, and
among these were to be considered all those who had any attach-
ment to the old condition of the kingdom, to the priesthood, or
to the nobility. In this way, all persons of wealth and abiUty
who did not unconditionally acquiesce in the new order of things
were doomed to death. Suspicion was enough, and legal proof
by no means requisite. In order however to leave no possible
doubt as to the object of the government, this general damna-

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY l794. 493

toiy rule was given : all enemies of the nation must be put to
death.

In this way the extirpation of the old order of things was
indeed effectually accomplished, but in such a manner as was.
found very difficult to remedy when people returned to their
senses. Attempts were afterwards made to restore what was
old, but things could now no longer be or become old; and
when it was restored, it brought down upon France the same
evils from which Germany and England are now suffering. Re-
ligion entirely disappeared; but superstition, fanaticism and
christian fetichism, on the contrary, took deep and immoveable
root among the high and low vulgar. The respectable Gallican
church fell, and papistical Jesuitism occupied its place. Coats
of arms and all the memorials of past ages, when all these were
in place and suited to the habits of life, were destroyed with
more than vandal barbarism. Attempts are now made to restore
them in our times, to which they are no longer suitable, which ex-
hibit the mere silly and ridiculous rococo of a pitiful generation.
The academies to which Europe was unspeakably indebted were
destroyed, and were at a later period restored, as mere hono-
rary names and personal decorations. The sepulchres of the
ancient kings were desecrated and torn to pieces ; and at a later
period a comedy was played with the ashes of Napoleon by
Thiers and the pupil of Dumourier and Genlis, in which the
same people strutted in ermine who had formerly danced as
sans-culottes round the tree of liberty. By the abolition of all
the provincial divisions, the constituent assembly had already
laid the foundation of national unity ; by new geographical names
of the departments sent the old to oblivion, and brought the
whole country into connexion with the new ; the convention too
were anxious to extend this principle to all the relations of ordi-
nary life.

The calendar, weights, measures, names of the days, com-
mencement of the year, and names of the weeks and months^
were all changed. Instead of christian names and divisions,
others founded upon astronomy and natural history were intro-
duced, and the era of the republic established. The months were
divided into decades, the completion of which was made up by
the addition of what were called five complementary days. The
new year commenced on the 22nd of September 17^3, and was
called year ii. of the republic. The celebration of Sundays and

494 FIFTH PXRIOD.^-^MOOND DIVISION. [CH. XI.

holidays was forbidden^ and> on the oontraiy^ that of the decade
or tenth day enjoined by law. The ten democratic despots went
on the ancient principle of all despots and ministers^ — that it is
only neoessaiy to command in order to create religion^ customs
and public opinion, and either to introduce or root out popular
usages $ and they were therefore foolish enough| on the 29th of
September 1793, to renew an ordinance of the convention of the
4ih of May, the impracticability of which had been long ob^ous.
They attempted anew to fix a maximum price for all the neces-i
saries of life. The people endured all this tyranny, partly be*
cause opportunity was thus afibrded them of paying the higher
dasses with like for like, and partly because they found com--
pensation for their christian holidays in the wicked and revolt*
ing scenes and processions prepared by Danton's firiends ; and
amusements and indulgences were thus furnished well-suited to
the rude and vulgar tastes of the masses. For the celebration
of these scandalous and disgraceful ceremonies, instituted by
such men as Gloots, Hubert and Chaumette, people were em-
ployed to exhibit for money, as was the case in the processions
and ceremonies of the monks j they were not indeed, like the
latter, paid from ecclesiastical funds, but as long as the com-
mittee of public welfare needed the services of such men, were
remunerated from the treasury of the state.

It is obvious, from a decree of the convention of the 15th
of November, tiiat the men who guided the counsels of the
committee of public welfare were well*-aware, that such deep«
rooted abuses were only to be eradicated by the same means as
the pious eradicators of pharisaism were accustomed to employ.
In this decree, which was signed by Robespierre^ Carnot^ BU*-
laud Varennes and Robert Lindet, it is declared, that popular
societies are indispensable for the dissemination of good prin-
ciples, and that a sum of 100,000 francs should be dedicated to
this ol^ect. We leave to the writers of special histories of this
period the enumeration and account of all these ridiculous, scan-
dalous and blasphemous scenes, which were got up under the
direction of Gloots, Momoro, Chaumette, and others, who, by
means of the very dregs of a people long demoralized by the
gross immoralities of all ranks, high and low^ laboured so to de**
grade and pollute every high and holy principle and ordinanee,
that they could never again be looked upon with reverence by
the people ; we shall only refer to a few particulars of what

§ II.] FBBNOH RIPUBLIO TILIi JULY 1794. 495

the three tyranta afterwards alleged as a crime against Dan-
ton's friends. After September 1799, Danton's fUends^ and
especially Chaumette^ who had great influence in the common-
coundl of Paris, had begun not only to rave in revolting Ian-
guage against priestcraft, but against Christianity itself. For
this purpose they enacted such scandalous and wicked scenes
in the churches, in the streets, and in the hall of the conven-
tion itself, that even Robespierre and his friends looked upon
the offence and scandal to common sense and decency as too
gross. The leader in all these things was Chaumette, the pro^
cureur^Mralf ably assisted by his deputy, Hubert, and Momoro,
who was a printer and writer on typography. The prophet and
apostle of this blasphemous crew was the identical baron Cloots,
who since July 1790 had played so many comedies in the hall of
the convention.

Cloots belonged to the most dangerous class of vain fools, and
played the character of Herostratus. He was full of the idea
of a universal republic and a universal religion, or rather uni«
versal atheism^. As he was a very rich man, he himself paid
the people whom he employed to enact his farces. This he
had done when he conducted the ambassadors of aU nations to
offer their congratulations to the constituent assembly; and he
did the same now, when he, Momoro, Chaumette, H^bert^
L'Huillier, and JuUen^ who had previously been a protestant
clergyman, not only constantly declaimed against Christianity^
but by their bands disturbed those who wished to be allowed to
worship God. They organized scandalous processions, desecrated
the churches and sacred vessels, and exhibited theatrical scenes in
the divine temples, in which common prostitutes (Momoro's wife

* Cloots, in his speech, which was extremely applauded by himself, saj8«
" Paris r^^n^r^ 6toit le poste de Vorateur du genre humain/' Respecting
religion : " Citoyens, la religion est le plus grand obstacle k mon uiopie," He
dedicated a work to the convention, in which, according to his opinion, he had
proved the absurdity of all religion, and the convention decreed : " Ana-
charsis Cloots, d^put^ k la convention, ayant fait hommage d'un de ses
ouvrag^es, intitule CeriUude dee Preuv€t du MahowUHame, ouvrage, qui constats
la nullity de toutes les religions, I'assemblee accepte cet hommage, en ordonne
la mention honorable et Pinsertion au bulletin, et renvoie le livre au comit^
d'instruction publique. La convention renvoie k son comit^ d'instruction pub-
lique la proposition faite par le mdme membre d'^riger une statue k Jean Mes»
sier, cure d'£tr^pigny et de Ponce en Champagne, le premier prdtre qui ait eu
le courage et la bonne foi d'abjurer les erreurs religieuses. La convention
ordonne Timpression et I'envoi k tous les d^partemens du discours dont Ana-
charsis Cloots a fait pr^c6der son offirande/' (Moniteur SQ Brumaire, anllL)

496 FIFTH PERIOD.^-SBGOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

and others) represented allegorical personages or goddesses of
Reason. They carried the thing at length so far, that in reli-
ance on their friends in the convention, they enacted scenes of
blasphemy, which even at that time excited the indignation of
Robespierre and his adherents, and were taken advantage of by
them in order to destroy Danton.

As early as the 3rd of September^ Thuriot had brought the
jacobin club to resolve upon the necessity of importuning the
convention to put an end to what Thuriot called the imposture
of a priesthood. The convention, which was at that time the
mere creature of the jacobin dub and the common-council,
obeyed. It called upon the whole body of the priests, and espe-
cially upon those who were members of the convention, to relin-
quish their diplomas of ordination, and a register to record the
names of those who were thus unpriested {dfyritrish) was opened
at the municipality. From this time one scene of contempt for
and desecration of Christianity followed another, till at length a
crowning scandal was solemnly exhibited in the city of Paris and
in the hall of the convention. The churches were deprived of
their decorations, furniture, sacred vessels and robes ; all these, for
the purpose of exciting contempt, were thrown in party-coloured
confusion and without any covering on the backs of asses and
mules, and conveyed through the streets of Paris in ludicrous
procession to the convention. This procession was commenced
by a drunken and hired multitude, and the whole was con-
cluded in the convention in a manner altogether worthy of its
beginning.

The scene in the convention was prepared by Chaumette;
whilst H^ert, Cloots, L'HuiUier, and Oobet*, the constitu-
tional bishop of Paris, played the leading characters on the oc-
casion. Great injustice however has been done to Gobet, who
was the victim of his fears, by alleging that he declared himself
to be a renegade ; he only appeared before the bar of the con-
vention in order to make a solemn declaration that he would
never more exercise any priestly functions. His vicars afterwards
made the same declaration ; several other bishops followed his
example, as well as Julien, who was a protestant clergyman;
and among all these cowardly souls, there was only Ghr^oire

* We have very great doubts whether he received 300,000 francs for his
renunciation of Christianity, as is stated in many books.

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794, 49?

Tfi-ho had the courage to set at naught the threats of destruc-
tion and death. Si^y^s^ who at other times remained per-
fectly silent during the whole period of the reign of terror,
loudly declared, that he rejoiced extremely at this signal victory
of reason over superstition and fanaticism ; Gr^ire, on the
contrary, boldly and contemptuously averred, that he could and
would after, as well as before, be and remain a catholic and tf
priest. After this offensive scene, the convention made itself
ridiculous by passing a decree, that an entirely new system of
religion should be established instead of the catholic faith, which
belonged to the whole race of men and not to the French nation
alone, in the same manner as the French republic had been
substituted for the ancient monarchy*. From this moment,
Cloots and his associates indulged so madly in their farces and
profane processions, the enemies of Christianity so wearied and
harassed the convention with their nonsense delivered from the
tribune and at the bar, and written defences of blasphemy and
apostasy became so numerous, that at length Danton as well as
Robespierre grew weary of their intolerance and clamour. A
decree was issued, declaring that all such scenes and efiusions in
future were forbidden by the convention, and that those who pro*
moted them must submit what they had to say to the committee
of public instruction. In this committee however, intelligent men,
such as Or^goire and Tliibaudeau, possessed the chief influence.
The scandalous scenes which were enacted by Danton's friends,
the impostiures and knavery with which another part of his ad-
herents were chargeable, the shameless offences, cj'nicism and
audacious impiety of the criminals, of whose services Danton
availed himself on the lOth of August and in September 1792,
furnished Robespierre with the long-sought opportunity and pre-
tence for ridding himself of the proper founder of the republic.
Danton was good-humoiured, although audaciously impious;
Robespierre malicious and sneaking : Danton and his associates
spoke and acted impiously and contemptuously ; Robespierre
spoke of nothing but virtue, whilst in his own sneaking way he
caused thousands to be brought to the block. The multitude, who
are easily deceived by soft words, did him homage as the incor-

* The convention decreed : " Le culte catbolique sera remplac par le cuite
de ia RaisoD." Tlie church of Notre Dame was appropriated to the worship
of this new goddess, whilst other churches were assigned to other allegorical
deities, such as freedom, youth, conjugal love, &c. &c.

VOL. VI. 2 K

498 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BCOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

ruptible, who had never enriched himself^ whilst they were dis-
satisfied with Danton and his extravagant companions, because
they made no secret of their plunder and licentious indulgences.
Danton was indolent, and had embraced Mirabeau's notion, that
France might be made free by unlimited boldness alone, and he
had reached his object; France was made free; he had enriched
himself, then wished peacefully to enjoy the fruits of his apoUa-
tion, and therefore felL At the decisive moment he withdrew
from the centre of business ; Robespierre, on the contrary, was
incessantly active and always in the midst of his followers ; he
courted the favour of the multitude, whilst Danton utterly de-
spised public opinion. Robespierre long crept after Danton like
a snake, and bit one of the dreadful adherents of the audacious
infidel afi^er another before he sprang upon the leader himself;
Danton suffered all this to occur. In Arcis sur Aube, his native
city, he forgot all the cabals of Paris for a time in the society of
a young and charming wife, whom he had just married ; when
he returned he was lost beyond remedy.

The schism between the two clubs of jacobins, the parent club
ruled by Robespierre and that of the cordeliers which yielded
obedience to Danton, became a matter of notoriety at the close
of the year 1793; at the commencement of the year 17^4,
Camille Desmoulins formally proclaimed war against the three
individuals who reigned in and through the committee of public
welfare, as well as against the system of terror which they brought
into operation. He very wittily selected some passages from the
annals of Tacitus, in which a description is given in very lively
colours of the cruelty and despotism of the emperor Tiberius, and
translated and transferred them to his journal (^ Le vietuc Corde^
tier *) in such a pertinent manner, that no one could fail to recog-
nise the conduct of the triumvirate in the description of that of
Tiberius. At the same time as this occurred, some of the most
conspicuous of the blasphemers drew down upon themselves the
hatred of the public by remarkable instances of corruption, and
some of the deputies who usually voted with Danton were guilty
of frauds, which, at any time and under any government, would
have entitled them to be sent to the house of correction. As to
the blasphemers, Momoro, Ronsin and Vincent, who were at the
head of the mob called the revolutionary army, they carried their
mischief and wickedness so far, that their own friends thought it
advisable to sacrifice them. Robespierre took advantage of these

§!!•] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 499

things^ to lay all this scandal and disgrace to their account^ as
soon as he perceived that their open and daring atheism had made
an unfavourable impression. He studied to identify all his op-
ponents with atheism^ and he himself professed to return to
belief in the existence of a Ood. Moreover^ Hebert^ one of the
most scandalous and conspicuous blasphemers^ had exposed him«
self and his party to contempt and hatred by receiving 120^000
francs from the minister of war for copies of his indecent and
revoltingly vulgar journal * Pere Duchesne/ under the pretence
that they were to be sent to the armies, in order to keep alive the
sana-culottism of the soldiers. The history of those friends of
Danton, who by their open frauds furnished Robespierre with an
opportunity of showing himself to be the incorruptible friend of
virtue, and of holding up Danton and his adherents to the hatred
of the people as the defenders of every vice, deserves to be de-
tailed at somewhat greater length.

Delaunay of Angers, and Julien, a clergyman from Toulouse,
had long drawn public attention to themselves by their inter-
course with the countess de Beaufort and an actress named
Descoings, because they indulged in an expenditure which bore
no proportion whatever to their visible means. Before they re-
sorted to the forgery of public documents, they had been accused
of a species of fraud than which nothing is at present more
common. Whilst they were members of the committee of finance,
they entered into arrangements with Frey^s banking-house, in
order to make usurious speculations on the stock-exchange, in
which their colleagues Chabot, formerly a capuchin, and Fabre
d'Eglantine, took part ; Danton was accused of having partici-
pated in the advantages of the speculation, and Dumourier's
knavish contractor, the abb^ d'Espagnac, was also active on the
occasion. Danton had no concern in the criminal negotiations
with the directors of the East India Company, which were car-
ried on through the banking-house of baron de Batz, nor had
Fabre d'Eglantine, at least in their commencement ; but Delau-
nay and Julien managed the affair, and at a later period drew
Bazire and Fabre d'Eglantine into a share in the enterprise.

The speculating deputies were members of the finance com-
mittee, at the time in which it was called upon to make a report
to the convention respecting the abolition of the East India
Company, which however was to be preceded by a liquidation of
the claims against it ; the directors of the company offered half

2k2

500 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

a million to the deputies above referred to^ if they could succeed
in having this liquidation left to the company itself. This would
naturally have led to a long delay in the abolition of the com*
pany. Chabot, Delaunay and Julien accepted the offer^ but
proved unable to fulfil their promise^ because Cambon, their
colleague^ who was justly regarded as an oracle in all questions of
finance^ opposed their views in the convention, as did also Fabre
d'Eglantine, who was not yet won over to their cause. The sup-
port of Thuriot and Bazire was of very little advantage to the
other three, because the former long since had been accused of
various frauds. The convention therefore resolved, that the state
should take charge of the liquidation ; but because the prepara-
tion of all decrees affecting their departments belonged to the
respective committees as executive authorities, it lefl the drawing
up of this decree to the committee. The sharpers among the
members of the committee, who had now won over Fabre to their
cause, had recourse to forgery to help them out. They first drew
up the decree exactly as the convention had resolved, and in this
form caused it to be signed by Cambon and all those who were
not in their secret; but before they themselves attached their
signatures, a few sentences were inserted which served their views.
The affair could not remain concealed, and came to light at the
very time in which Robespierre was devising means to destroy
Danton's adherents, to whom they belonged, in a similar manner
to that in which he and Danton had annihilated the Oironde.

Robespierre proceeded very slowly in his movements against
Danton, because he knew right well that Danton's adherents
were much more dreadful than his own ; he glided onward like a
snake, or crept like a tiger, which never makes a decisive spring
till he is sure of his prey. In October he had availed himself
of the prosecution of the girondists in order to abolish the law,
which granted to every deputy, before he was accused, the right
of being heard in the convention ; in November he profited by
the scandal which Cloots and his associates had caused, to de-
stroy the reckless and demoralized portion of the cordeliers,
and then by the frauds to which we have referred, to ruin another
portion of the same club. Amar, an advocate from Grenoble,
who was used as an instrument on such occasions, was required
by Robespierre to move, on the 18th of November, for the arrest
of persons whom no one could protect, for the blow fell upon
Bazire, Delaunay, Chabot and Julien. The last saved himself by

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 501

flight ; Bazire may have been innocent of the forgery, but he
as well as Thuriot was accused of other frauds. With great pru-
dence^ Fabre d'Eglantine was at that time still spared^ and first
arrested on the 13th of January 1794 ; for in January matters had
gone so far^ that Vadier could venture to denounce both him and
other friends of Danton in the convention as pensioners of Pitt.

The friends and adherents of the arrested impostors were so
numerous and powerfril^ that the two committees of government
were obliged to unite in order to effect their purpose. Robes-
pierre therefore sought to avail himself of the better portion of
his colleagues and of the people against theu* most powerful
friends. Their audacious impiety furnished him with the pre-
tence of announcing their downfsJl to them also. Just two days
after the arrest of the forgers (on the 20th), Cloots and his com-
panions exhibited the disgracefril procession with the sacred ves-
sels and vestments taken by force from the churches, in the streets
and in the hall of the convention ; the crouching tyrant referred
to the circumstance on the very next day in the jacobin club, and
turned it to their disadvantage. On the 21st, at the meeting of
the club, he declared himself a believer in the doctrine of the
existence of a God, declaimed a^dnst atheism and denounced it
as aristocratic. By this means Danton's adherents were exposed
to great hatred, and Robespierre appeared to the vast majority
of oppressed and undemondized Frenchmen as their only refuge.
Robespierre no sooner declared himself on this subject than the
deputies, who had hitherto remained silent from constraint and
fear, saw that they might speak out ; the convention declared that
it had never thought of doing violence to religious freedom, and
forbad any further seizures of church-plate to be made, as the
treasury did not require such extraordinary aids. From this
moment the sword was suspended over the necks of the corde-
liers, whose chief, Danton, first tarried in Arcis sur Aube, and
then indulged the pleasures of indolence and prosperity, even
when he returned and took his place in the convention in the
month of February 1794.

The struggle between Robespierre and Danton's partisans was
at its height at the very moment in which Danton was spending
his time in ease and indulgence in Arcis sur Aube, and his at-
tention was at first roused by the expulsion of his friends from
the jacobin club^ which was always the prelude to the downfall
of a party. He was powerful enough, but indolence and pa-

502 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DITIBIONt [0H« II*

triotism restrained him from causing a schism among the patriots.
H^bert^ who was a faithful partisan^ in the meantime spoke in
the cordeliers against the jacobin dub^ which was not only
obliged to listen daily to dissertations upon virtue from Robe^
pierre, but also showed by its acts, that it was ready and
willing to destroy its former friends. On the 15 th of Decern*
ber 1793, they expelled fi^m the club the leaders of the ultra^
revolutionists, in the persons of Duhem and Cloots. These exr
pulsions fell upon one of the cordeliers after another, till Fabre
was also involved in February. Whilst the orators of the two
clubs were declaiming against each other from their respective
tribunes, Camille Desmoulins published the article already re-
ferred to in the ' Vieux Cordeher.^ It was therefore now time
for the triumvirate to break loose; true to their method and
principles, the first object was to involve the whole body of Dan*
ton^s friends in a conspiracy. This was the practice which they
uniformly pursued, when a multitude of veiy different persons,
without being a powerful party, was to be at once destroyed*
St. Just was to find out the elements of this conspiracy, and to
draw up a report to be submitted to the convention. Couthon
presided, and Robespierre and his clients were industrious in
throwing out and scattering abroad, either from the tribune of
the convention or the jacobin club, all sorts of innuendos and
allusions, and in the expression of their anxiety for the public
safety and freedom.

At the close of February the plan of the triumvirate was com*
plete ; their accusations were so nimierous, that Hubert, on the
9th of March 1794, made the most violent attack upon the
charges which were put into circulation in innumerable papers by
the jacobins against their friends. In the most vehement of aU
his speeches, delivered in the club of the cordeliers on the 9th,
he attempted to show that his companions in the club were
falsely accused by persons who were desirous of destroying the
national representatives, and causing a schism between the jaco-
bins and cordeliers. But all his violence and argument proved
vain ; he was unable to avert the mortal blow which was im-
pending over his associates in crime, murder and robbery, whom
St. Just had more immediately in his eye.

On the Idth of March, the committees of general safety and of
public welfare were summoned to a united consultation, in order
to prove that something important and dangerous was to be un«

§ II.] . FBBNCH BBPUBLIO TILL JULY l794. 503

dertaken respecting the impending conspiracy. St. Jusf s object
was, to be enabled to propose to the convention, in the name of
the united committees, that decree which was afterwards brought
forward and passed in one and the same sitting. All previous
decrees of this description had been aimed and directed against
royalists, aristocrats or hierarchs, but the present embraced the
cases of three classes of republican traitors. 8t. Just, in his
long report, drawn up with all that sophistry and skill peculiar
to himself, dwells at great length upon the cases of the 6rst two
classes, the former comprising the degraded and corrupt, and
the latter the ultra-revolutionary party ; the third, or moderate
party is only incidentally mentioned. We shall merely quote
one passage of the report, in order to show how far St. Just
excelled all the lawyers of our .days whose services the prosecu-
tors of political agitators enipl9y,.in the dear and able combina-
tion df all kinds of accusations/ even of the most contradictory
description, in one common indictment. It will be seen that he
far outstripped all the monarchical Mephistopheleses in black-
ening the reputations of those: whom they wished to destroy*.
The law itself condemns in very general terms as traitors to the
country ; —

'^ All those who are convicted of having promoted in any way
whatsoever any plan or plans for bribing or seducing the citizens
of the state, destroying any of the existing authorities, or effecting
any change of the prevailing public opinion ; all those who have
in any way prevented the importation of goods by the apprehen-
sions which they may have excited, received emigrants into their
houses, or tried to procure the liberation of prisoners, are com-
prehended under this class. To these are to be added all such
as have caused troops to be brought into the city to murder the
people and deprive them of their freedom ; and finally, all those
who have made attempts either to alter or change the republican
form of government.'' In order to bring as many persons as
possible within the scope of the conspiracy, all those were
marked out as criminals who gave shelter or protection in their

* In this report he says, — " II y a dans la r^pubiique une conjarationonrdie
par r^tranger, dont le but est d'empScher par la corruption que la iiberti ne
s'^tablisse. Le but de T^tranger est de cr^er des conjures de tous les homines
m^contens et de nous aviiir s'il 6to\t possible dans I'univers par les scandales
de i'intrigue. On commet des atrocit^s pour en accuser le peuple et la r6vo-
lution. C'est encore la tyrannie qui fait tous les maux que Ton volt, et c'est
elle qui en accuse la libert6. L'6tranger corrompt tout."

504 FIFTH PERIOD.-— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

houses to any persons accused of conspiracy^ or who had been
outiawed.

Amar was the person again employed to bring forward the
accusation in the name of the committee of general safety and to
move for the arrest of the parties impeached. With respect to
the first class^ whom no one pitied, or could seriously defend,
this took place on the 16th of March. Who indeed could feel
any pity for men who had been leaders in the September mas-
sacres, like Vincent, the secretary at war, or Ronsin^ general of
the revolutionary army, or Proly, Dubuisson, DeflSeux and Pe-
reira, who had been fraudulent stock-jobbers and spies of foreign
powers, and the very men who had found out and sold Dumou-
rier ? On the 24th of March nineteen of the ultra-revolutionary
class were executed, men at whose downfall every man rejoiced,
because their execution seemed to furnish the only possible hope
of putting an end to their senseless and dangerous clamours.
That such was really the case will be obvious from the fact that
Ronsin, Momoro, Cloots, Vincent and H^rt were executed
together with a few less-known, infamous, or contemptible men.
Those who were called the corrupt or the convicted sharpers
and impostors among the deputies were spared from malicious
cunning, in order to make Danton an object of greater public
odium, by bringing his execution into near connexion with theirs.
Pache, the mayor, who belonged to the same category, was
spared on this occasion, and R&l, who was reckoned one of the
party, lived long enough in our century to become one of the most
distinguished men of the French empire. Chaumette was spared
in order to be executed along with Gobet and other originators
of and actors in the scandalous, blasphemous and ridiculous
scenes, which were enacted at the festivals of the goddess of
Reason. The tyrants moreover deprived themselves of the means
of retaining their dominion, which was based wholly upon the
physical strength of the lower classes. In case of necessity,
there was no longer any one left who could put himself at the
head of this physical strength. The whole foundation of their
dominion was destroyed, for Ronsin's execution necessarily led
to the disbanding of the revolutionary army of sans-culottes.

After the 16th of March, every one became aware that the
measures devised were aimed at Danton, and the chief of those
men who by their abilities and power had founded the new re-
public ; it would not therefore have been difficult for Danton to

§ II.] FUENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 505

have aummoned his hellish bands for his protection ; he could
at least have sold his life dear^ but from magnanimity and pa-
triotism he scorned to have recourse to these means. Wester*
mann offered to put himself at the head of the faubourgers and
of the soldiers whom he had commanded in La Yend^^ and to
deliver him from the power of his enemies^ but he refiised the
offer. This is considered the more surprising, because man-
kind is disposed to regard one man as unconditionally goody
and another as unexceptionably body although history as well as
daily experience of life contradicts this mode of judging and con*
demning our fellow-men. Was not the author of this history
determined to exclude everything in the form of anecdotes from
his pages^ he could mention many circumstances derived from
personal intercourse with those who were daily in Danton's
society, which would prove that generous feelings and lofty
thoughts were no strangers to the breast of a man, whose crimes
no one can excuse or defend. An individual who afterwards
filled an important military post under Buonaparte, but who
was commander of a battalion of national guards at the time of
Danton^s arrest, has often related to the author with a deep
emotion, the manner in which Danton prevented him from
showing the slightest sign of good feeling towards him on that
occasion.

Danton moreover deceived himself when he imagined they would
not dare to lay hands on him. Things had now gone so far, that
either he and Camille, or the ruling men of the committee of pub-
lic welfare, must fall ; and St. Just therefore was commissioned
to prepare another murderous report. The persons who were on
this occasion to be attacked were so important, and the number
of persons who must either be executed or removed from office
on their account was so considerable, that a union of the three
great committees was deemed advisable or necessary in order to
attack them. The triumvirate proved victorious ; but Danton's
partisans within and without the convention, who in fear and
trembling were compelled to acquiesce in that which they could
not prevent, succeeded afterwards in overthrowing this triumvi-
rate in the month of July. St. Just called together the nume-
rous legislative committee, the committee of general safety and
that of public welfare as one body, and secured thei^ consent
and approbation before he brought forward the motion for the ar-
rest of the accused on the Slst of March in the convention. This

506 FIFTH PEBIOD. — 8B00ND DIVI8I0N. [OH. II.

step was no doubt both prudent and necessary, considering that
these men had been at the hehn of public affairs. The conyention,
as usual^ decreed what was submitted to them by their masters,
although the majority of the deputies were much better-disposed
towards the accused party than towards their enemies. On the
31st ofMarch, Camille Desmoulins, Hdrault de S^helles, Dan-
ton, Philippeaux and Lacroix were impeached, for having par-
ticipated in the political crimes of the duke of Orleans, general
Dumourier and Fabre d'Eglantine. These individuals were im-
mediately arrested, and on the very next day placed before the
revolutionary tribunal. The accused, by their bearing, struck
fear into the hearts even of the infernal judges before whose
tribunal they were summoned. Amidst the clamour and threats
of the populace, which was devoted to them, they authorita-
tively and contemptuously demanded that their accusers should
be confronted with them at the bar of public justice; and a more
dreadful battle-array of audacious offenders, who felt themadvea
unjustly arraigned, because their accusers were more guilty than
themselves, was never drawn up in the presence of any tribunal.
There were fifteen of the accused ; for such a man as Philip-
peaux, who had so little in common with his fellow-prisoners,
that he was the very man who had brought to light the cruelties
and wickedness in La Vendue, and demanded punishment on
the offenders, and besides him, such men as Westermann, Ca-
mille Desmoulins and Herault de S&helles, together with con-
victed cheats, such as Chabot, Bazire, Fabre, Delaunay, Junius
and Emanuel Frey, D^Espagnac, Gusman the Spaniard, and
Diedrichs the Dane, were placed at the same time before the
court, as if the charges against them all, their characters and
crimes, were precisely of the same description. The coiurt held
two stormy sittmgs, and Fouquier Tinville, who in other respects
condemned the accused en masse without hearing them, became
alarmed in the third sitting (on the 3rd of April), and wrote to
the committee of public welfare that it would be impossible to
bring the trial to a successful issue without the aid of an imme-
diate law passed by the convention to meet the difficulties of this
particular case *. Such a miserable wretch as Laflotte had pre-

* Rapport an nom de la Commission des Vixigt et un, &c. Pikes indiqu^
dans le Rapport, ou servant k i'appui des faits qui y sont d^velopp^, No. 71,
p. 246 : Lettre du president et de I'accusateur public du tribunal r^volution-
naire au sujet de la demande faite par Danton et autres d'eatendre des d^pat^

§ II.] FBBNCH BSPDBLIO TILL JULY 1794« BOj

viously been imprisoned with the accused to act as a spy upon
their words and actions. Laflotte reported to his employers that
Dillon had said, they could earily be set at liberty by an inmtrrec^
turn. St. Just immediately turned this information to account
in the report which he drew up in the name of the committee of
public welfare^ and presented to the convention. The hearsay
of a spy was converted from di: possibility into a direct proof of a
conspiracy, and on the motion of St. Just the convention resolved,
^^ That the court shall forthwith, in the present sitting {sans
c^&anpor^), pronounce judgement upon Danton and his fellow-
prisoners ; and it is hereby fully empowered to send every one to
the scaffold without further delay {mettre hors des dibats) who
shall not conduct himself with becoming respect towards the
court, or cause or occasion any disturbance or tumult.^^

This decree was issued by the convention : all the accused
had risen up and made an earnest appeal in the court against the
conduct of their judges and accusers, and were attempting to
excite a scene of terror and tumult both within and without the
precincts of the court. The decree was immediately prepared
and carried by two deputies into the clamorous assembly. The
accused were removed, and at the sitting of the court on the
following day (April the 4th) the prisoners were summarily con-
demned, in accordance with the decree of the preceding day.
They were executed as early as the 5th. The triumvirate ap-
peared to have conquered, but they had in fact only commenced
a hopeless struggle in the convention and in the departments
with the partisans of the fallen, who became more fearful by
the accession of all the royalists and republicans, and in short,
of all the opponents of the jacobins in the assembly, who now
joined Danton^s party, after the fall of its leaders, because they
could only hope to conquer by their aid and instrumentality.

en t^moignage, Paris ce 15 Germinal de Tan deuxi^me de la republiquc Fran-
98186 une et indivisible. " Citoyens repr^sentans I Un orage horrible gronde
depuis que la stance est commence, les accus^ en forcen^ r^clament Taudi*
tion & d^charge des citoyens deputes, Simon, Courtois, Laignelot, Freron,
Panis, Laudot, Calon, Merlin de Douay, Gossuin, Legendre, Robert Lindet^
Robin, Goupillon de Montaigu, Lecointre de Versailles, firivat et Merlin de
Thionville ; ils en appellent an peuple du refus qu'ils pr^tendent eprouver ;
malgre la fermet^ du president et du tribunal entier, leurs reclamations multi-
pli6e8 troublent la stance, et ils annoncent hautement, qu'ils ne se tairont pas
que leors t^moins ne soient entendus. Sans un d^ret nous ne savons qu«
faire ; nous vous invitons ^ nous tracer definitivement notre r^gle de conduite
sur cette reclamation : I'ordre judiciaire ne nous foumissant aucuns moytns de
wwHver ce r^fus. A. Q. Fouquier et Herrmann, pr^ident."

508 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. It.

This combination led to the perpetration of an incredible in-
icrease of cruelties and wickedness. Robespierre became tmen-
durable; for though, in consequence of the avoidance of all
avarice, luxury and affected cynicism, he was the idol of the
populace, all the higher classes, and particularly his colleagues,
as early as May, became outraged and indignant at his pride,
ambition, presumption and envy. On the 1st of May, the
number of political prisoners in Paris amounted to 8000, and
was daily increasing, although from the beginning a dozen, then
two, afterwards three, and finally four dozen or more were daily
brought to the scaffold and executed. We should therefore re-
gard it as lost time, as even Mignet does, to entertain our readers
with any remarks on Robespierre's principles, or to say a single
word upon that system of social philosophy with which St. Just
seasoned the reports, which he drew up almost every week and
caused to be printed at the expense of the state. We follow the
facts.

After Danton's fall, the government certainly exercised re-
doubled energy and acted with complete unity. The various
ministerial departments were abolished, and the twelve commis-
sioners appointed in their stead were in reality nothing else than
so many chancery officers, by whom the various orders deter-
mined on by the ten were drawn up, and through whom they
were issued. Robespierre proved himself on all occasions so
powerful, that all the places in the committee of public welfere^
and even the lives of his colleagues, depended upon him alone.
On his disagreement in December 1793 with Robert Lindet and
H^rault de S^chelles, who up till this time always had seats
in the committee, they not only lost their places, but H^rault,
in consequence of his expulsion, was condemned to death, and
the sentence executed on the 5th of April. From this time till
the 27th of July 1794, the committee of public welfare was com-
posed of the same ten individuals, who were regularly re-elected
every three months. These were, Robespierre, Couthon, St.
Just, Camot, Barrere, Billaud Varennes, CoUot d^Herbois,
Prieur, Vadier, and Jean Bon de St. Andr6. Each had his de-
partment in this tyrannical dominion. Robespierre was entrusted
with the management of the high police and the guidance of
public opinion. St. Just watched the malcontents, and discovered
conspiracies when it was found necessary to remove dangerous or
impracticable men out of the way. Couthon brought forward

§ II.] FRENCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 509

the most dreadful proposals, to which he understood the method
of giving as great an appearance of necessity or propriety as Pitt,
or any German diplomatist or lawyer. Billaud and Collot super-
intended the missions of deputies into the departments ; Camot
was completely occupied with the war department, which he
managed with as much pre-eminent ability as Cambon did the
finances. The two Prieurs, in connexion with some other depu-
ties, superintended the administration of the home department.
Barr^re was daily employed in clothing scenes of murder and
slaughter in French tinsel, by the copious use of academical
phrases and sophistical expressions, and by his ability in this
way well entitled himself to the name of the Anacreon of the
guillotine.

The man who afterwards became Buonaparte's first jurist,
duke and high chancellor, aided the bloody triumvirate in the
preparation of those laws which their cruel government needed
and demanded. Cambaceres was therefore the man, who, in the
name of the legislative committee, afterwards united with that of
general safety, and brought forward some of the dreadful laws
which were passed during the reign of terror. The sitting of the
committees took place on the 16th of April 1794, and on the
following day the proposed laws were passed. It was first de-
creed, that all persons accused of any species of conspiracy what-
soever, to whatever part of the kingdom they might belong,
should be brought to Paris and tried before the revolutionary
tribunal in that city. After this, a residence in Paris, in any
fortified town or sea-port, was strictly forbidden to all who had
previously belonged to the nobility, and to foreigners who might
be natives of any of those countries which were at war with
France. It was further stated in this law, that its penalties and
restrictions should be regarded as equally applicable to all those
who had at any time either bought or assumed titles and pri-
vileges.

Almost at the same moment as the persevering and envious
destroyer of all true freedom caused madame Elizabeth, the
sister of Louis XVI., a lady who was distinguished for the
mildness and benevolence of her character, and who was really
a pattern of all female virtues, to be executed, it occurred to
him to put himself forward as the prophet of an unchristian
God. As early as the end of April, Robespierre began to feel
his power unstable, and that the most corrupt and degraded

510 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II

among his friends, the rump of the cordeliers, and particularly
Barrere, Fouch^, Tallien and Billaud Varennes, were lying in
wait for him, and he therefore sought for support against these
unprincipled and reckless enemies in the aid and co-operation of
those who were anxiously longing after a return to the principles
of morality and religion. By this step he indeed neither deceived
nor gained the good opinion of any one, but after having been
long an object of hatred, now made himself ridiculous.

On the 7th of May 17^4, Robespierre delivered a tedious and
pompous speech in the convention respecting the connexion of
religion and morality with repubhcan principles, which in his
mouth was in the highest degree ridiculous ; in the same address
he praised himself as such people are accustomed to do, and pro-
posed a decree which was accepted and passed by the conven-
tion, and was to the following effect: ^^ The national convention
acknowledgee the truth of the existence of a God and the immoT-
tality of the soulP From this moment attempts were made to
found a new species of republican religion, and the 8th of June
was appointed for the observance of a solemn festival, which was
called the festival of the Most Hiffh, and at which Robespierre
was to appear as high priest. His friend David the painter in-
vented the theatrical decorations and scenic effect for this solemn
festival, by which the victory of the crouching and sneaking
wisdom of Robespierre's legal finesse over the giant audacity of
his enemies was, symboHcally, extremely well represented. David
caused pasteboard images of Atheism, Egotism and Strife to be
erected, which during the exhibition were set on fire, and out of
their ashes sprang up the incense-breathing statue of Wisdom,
which however was not very splendid.

On the 6th of June the convention expressly elected Robes-
pierre for its president, in order to confer upon him the honour
of heading the convention, delivering the address, and with a
magnificent nosegay in his hand, in the character of high priest,
announcing to the people the new religion at this grand assembly
which was to be held in the garden of the Tuileries. The pride
which he exhibited on this occasion, as well as the whole cere-
mony, at which, mounted on an elevated platform in the garden
of the Tuileries, he delivered a long declamatory speech*, which
was followed by music and singing, excited the murmurs and

• Thiers, vol. vi. p. 261, speaks of Robespierre's speech as not only tolerable,
but good. We are of a different opinion, bvt this is of small oonaeqaence.

f II.] FRSNCH REPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794. 511

contempt of his colleagues. Although the number of executions
which daily took place in Paris had increased to forty or fifty^
the decree by which the convention acknowledged the existence
of a God^ and at the same time appointed the Decadis to be ob-
served as the festivals of different allegorical beings^ was imme-
diately placarded on all the walls of Paris. Robespierre's dry
practiced understanding wished to adopt St. Just's ideal of a
natural and national religion^ and this led him into a field of
theoretical speculation altogether foreign to the tendencies and
powers of his mind. The practical man was anxious to become
a visionary^ and gazed upwards instead of looking before his feet ;
he therefore missed his path, became ridiculous to his purely
practical companions, and fell.

He appointed four great national festivals, which were to be
celebrated on the 21st of January, the 10th of August, the Slst
of May, and the 14th of July. On the Decadis were to be ob-
served and solemnized the festivals of the Supreme Being, the
human race, the French people, the benefactors of mankind, the
martyrs of freedom, liberty and equality, hatred of tyrants and
traitors, good faith, heroism, love, &c. &c. The hypocrisy of
these poetical fancies and sentimentality excited strong feelings
of disgust, at the very time in which the inhabitants of several
streets in the city were loud in their complaints, that the carts
roUing past their houses laden with victims for the guillotine
had become unendurable to their eyes and ears. The extent
to which the ruling lawyers pushed their audacity in their so-
phistical and rhetorical speeches and writings, may be best seen
from Couthon's introductory report to the motion which he made
in the convention on the 10th of June, and which was passed by
that assembly. He proposed that all judicial forms should be
dispensed with in prosecutions for political offences, and on this
occasion says, after his sententious fashion : ^' It is absurd, im-
moral and imprudent to give a legal defender to traitors ; for the
jury is the best defender of patriots, whilst conspirators need
none." According to this new law, passed on Couthon's recom-
mendation, the murderous tribunals were hereafter to consist of
a senate, with a president, vice-president and twelve judges, of
which each subdivision was to consist of three judges and nine
paid jurors, who were to be constantly in service. The whole
body therefore was thus to be divided into four courts, which
would enable them, by continuing to hold daily sittings, to do

512 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

what really happened^ to send forty^ S&jy and at last as many
as sixty of their convicted enemies to the scaffold every day.

We give the text of the law in a note*, because its discussion
first brought to light the new division among the jacobins, and
made it apparent that the enemies of the triumvirate were de-
termined to make an attempt to undermine and shake off their
dominion. The law was passed indeed in one day, but on the
second Merlin succeeded in having a clause appended, which
removed all the deputies firom the jurisdiction of the tribunal.
The triumvirate however was powerful enough to have this clause
rescinded on the third day; its members perceived that their
power was broken, and became immediately after conscious that
the majority in the committee of public welfare, and in that also
of general safety, were no longer disposed to yield unconditional
obedience to their will. Among the clients of the triumvirate,
it was impossible to reckon upon such a man as Barrere ; for
some modern French sophists, such as the publishers of his me-
moirs, blinded by their republican zeal, will never convince us,
that all that his contemporaries said to his face of his licentious
and sybarite life, and caused to be printed also, and all that
Fr^ron admitted into his journal {^Orateur du Peuple,' No,
26.), were mere inventions f* Another firiend of the trium-

* " Le tribanal r^olationnaire se divisera par sections^ compost de douze
membres, eavoir, trois juges et neuf jur^s, lesqtiels ne pourront juger en moin-
dre nombre que celui de sept. Le tribunal revolutionnaire est institu^ pour
punir les ennemis du peuple. Les ennemis du peuple sont ceux, qui cherchent
k avilir la convention et Ic gouvernement revolutionnaire dont elle est le centre,
k ^garer Topinion et emp^cher Tinstruction du peuple, ^ depraver les moeurs
^t k corrompre la conscience du peuple ; enfin k alt^rer la puret^ des principes
r^volutionnaires. La peine port^e contre tons les d^lits dont la connoissance
appartient au tribunal revolutionnaire est la mort. La preuve pour condamner
les ennemis du peuple est toute espece de documens, soit inaterielle, soit mo-
rale, soit verbale, soit 6crite, qui pent naturellement obtenir I'assentiment de
tout esprit juste et raisonnable. La r^gle des jugemens est la conscience des
jur^ ^lain^s par I'amour de la patrie ; leur but, le triomphe de la r^publique
et la ruine de ses ennemis ; la procedure, les moyens simples que le bon sens
indique pour parvenir k la connoissance de la v^rit^ dans les formes que la loi
determine. Tout citoyen a le droit de saisir et de traduire devant les magi-
strate les conspirateurs et les contre-r^volutionnaires. 11 est tenu de les d^-
noncer, d^s qu'il les connait. Nul ne pourra traduire personne au tribunal
revolutionnaire, si ce n'est la convention, les comit6s de salut public et de
B^ete g^n^rale, les repr6sentans du peuple, commissaires de la convention et
Taccusateur public du tribunal revolutionnaire. L'accus^ sera interrog^ a
I'audience et en public, laformaUtS de Vinterrogatoire qui precede est auppnmee
eomme superflue, S'il existe des preuves soit materielles, soit morales, il ne sera
point entendu de t^moins. Toutes les depositions seront faites en public et
verbalement."

t Mignet alleges, I know not on what authority, that ''sea menn itoieni

§ II.] FRENCH BBPUBLIG TILL JULY l7d4. 513

virate was also for some time admitted to the conversation and
pleasures of one of those ladies whose saloons in Paris were open
even during the reign of terror ; he was therefore transformed
from a sans^ctUotte into a man of elegance and fashion.

TaUien, to whom we refer, was at that time one of the most
conspicuous characters of the day: he had perpetrated murders
in Bordeaux as Carrier had done in Nantes, but afterwards
married mademoiselle Fontenay Cabarus, who M'as extremely
rich, being the daughter of a Franco-Spanish banker and direct-
or of the Charles-bank, afterwards created a count and appointed
Spanish minister to the congress of Rastadt ; the lady was de-
livered by Tallien from prison, and she called him her husband
as long as it answered her purpose. He became therefore a
convert to aristocracy, and, as converts usually are, was very zeal-
ous for his new convictions, which merely continued till it suited
his wife's convenience to dismiss him. At a later period he sank
completely in the world, and was obliged to petition Buonaparte
for a miserable place ; he was however, in July 1794^ one of the
chief promoters of the downfall of the triumvirate. Fr^ron
also, who had given full scope to his fanaticism and cruelty in
Marseilles and Toulon, was at that time desirous of placing him--
self at the head of the vigorous sons of the wealthy and the noble,
in order to form a counteracting power to that of the populace.
Fouch^, who in July, like the ghost, in Hamlet, snuffed the
morning air, attempted to bury in oblivion everything connected
with his mad career of cruelty and blood in Lyons ; he worked
however with perfect quietness and secrecy, as he and Talley-
rand were always aft;erwards accustomed to do. Bourdon, Thu-
riot and Legendre at length began to see the way opening for
taking vengeance on the murderers of Danton and Ids friends,
and Merlin de Thionville joined in their views.

Barr^re, Collot d'Herbois and Billaud Varennes, who shared
the dominion of the triumvirate, in their characters of members
of the ruling committee, remained perfectly quiet, till allusions
began to be made to them in the jacobin club, and then they
became aware that they were threatened, Collot and Billaud
roused themselves to action on becoming conscious of their po-
sition, whilst Barrire still remained in ambush, in order to profit
by the favourable moment. It was necessary to take the tri-

douces (that is, sybarite), sa vie privie irrSprochdble/' It would not be worth
the trouble here to prove the contrary.

VOL. VI. 2 h

514 FIFTH PBRIOD^-^SBOOND DIVISION, [CH, II.

umvirate by surprise, for it was all-powerfol in Paris, where there
were no troops, Fleuriot filled the office of mayor ; the revolu-
tionary tribunal belonged to the jacobins ; the public prosecutor,
Dumas the president, and Coffinhal the vice-president, were all
Robespierre's creatures ; Henriot was at the head of that dread-
ful militia called the national guard, and was life and soul de-
voted to a faction which had raised him firom being a branded
criminal to be the leader of the national guard of Pluris. Robes-
pierre no sooner perceived that it was impossible for him any
longer unconditionally to carry through his measures in either of
the committees, and that he met with resistance in the conven-
tion, than he began to avail himself of his supremacy in the
jacobin club, and by expulsion from the dub to mark out those
amongst the number of his former friends whom he was anxious
to destroy. Dubois Craned and Fouch6 were the most distin-
guished amongst those whom he caused to be expelled, and
others were grossly insulted.

Camot also, who had hitherto been completely absorbed in
the affidrs of his department, and kept perfect silence respecting
the general adminiBtration, at length awakened to a knowledge
of the circumstances ; the majority of the committee was now
opposed to the three, and when St. Just found it necessary to
make another journey to the army, Robespierre thought it ad-
visable to absent himself from the committee of public welfiire
for four entire weeks after the middle of June. On St. Jusf s
return, an attempt was made to involve all the enemies of the
triumvirate in a new conspiracy. St. Just immediately began
to plan and to work out the report, and the preparation of the
assembly on this occasion was not entrusted to Couthon, as was
usually the case, but reserved for Robespierre himself; in con-
sequence of this plan, on the 8th Thermidor he made one of his
usual speeches, which were so well known as the precursors of
some deadly mischief. The essential contents of this speech, or
more properly speaking, a number of passages selected from it,
will be found in Thiers's * History,' a work now so universally
difiiised, both in the original and translations, that we may safely
refer our readers to that work for particulars, and confine our-
selves to a very brief notice of those important points which led
to the scenes of the following day.

Every one perceived that this was nothing else than the sound
of preparation for a new act of violence against a considerable

$ IlO FBBNOH HBPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 515

number of the opponents of the triumvirate, which St Just was
about to develope on the following day ; it was therefore received
with murmurs by one portion of the deputies and with silence
by the other, and could with difficulty be brought to a conclu-
sion, in consequence of the interruptions, Couthon then at-
tempted to terrify the servile and obsequious deputies into acqui-
escence, as he had so frequently done before, by having recourse
to violent language and distant threats. He could not fail how-
ever to perceive, by the language with which Fr&on interrupted
him during his speech, that the rats were beginning to leave the
tottering house of the republicans*. The influence of the chiefs
of the Mountain still continued for a time to preponderate, for
they succeeded in carrying a resolution that the speech should
be printed; when however it was attempted to add a clause di-
recting it to be sent into the departments, this clause was not
only rejected, but it was decreed, that before being sent to the
press it should be sent for examination to the very committees
against which, properly speaking, it was directed.

Now at length Barrere gained courage. On the day, and
still more on the evening of the 8th, he spoke in the committee
of public welfare with openness and determination against the
triumvirate: the author, who was personally acquainted with
Thibaudeau, and was indebted to him for various information
concerning these events, and on whom he places more confidence
than on any of the other real or pretended writers of memoirs,
has always felt great surprise at his declaration, that the migority
of the convention had no suspicion of what took place on the 9th
Thermidorf, Robespierre's loss of influence in the convention
and in his own committee was doubly compensated by his in«-
creasing power in the jacobin club and the common-council of
Paris. He read in the club the speech which had been so
strongly blamed in the convention and the committees ; it was
loudly applauded, and praised as the very ideal of a genuine re-
publican oration ; CoUot, who was also present in the club, was

* Fr^roD interrupted him in the following language i " Jusqu'k quand on
petit nombre de d^put^s, se regardant comme lea maitres de la convention,
auront-ils Taudaoe, sur des accusations vagues de conduire leurs coUdgues k
r^chafaud sans mime daigner les entendre ? Vous ne pouvez connaJtre la
v^rit6 sans r^tablir la libertc dcs opinions dans cette enceinte. Pariera-t-on
librement, si Ton craint d'etre arrlt^ en sortant de I'assembl^ ? "

t Thibaudeau, M^moires, vol. i. chap. viii. p, 82. " Mais le 9 Thermidor, la
grrande majority de la convention ne s'attendait point k ce qui arriva."

2l?

516 FIFTH PERIOD. — SBOOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

abused^ threatened, and finally contemptuously expelled : he was
driven out by the jacobins^ because tliey alleged he came there
as a mere listener or spy^ on behalf of the committees of general
safety and public welfare, both of which were hostile to them,
and were at that time assembled. When he returned to the
meeting of the committees and informed them of what had just
taken place in the jacobin club, he prevailed upon them to require
St. Just to make them acquainted with the document which he
was then drawing up at his own desk, apart from the rest of the
members. This document was in fact the murderous report
which St. Just proposed to submit to the convention on the en-
suing morning, and which he therefore refused to communicate
to his colleagues. This led to a tavern broil in the midst of the
committees. CoUot d^Herbois had recourse to the strongest
language and denunciations ; Barr^re became so virulent and bold
as to call the triumvirate pigmies, and to denounce them indi-
vidually, Robespierre as a scoundrel, Couthon as a paralyiic
fellow, and St. Just as a child.

On the morning of the 9th Thermidor (July 27th) St. Just
crept out with his report, which he was desirous of submitting
to the convention in the name of the committees without having
made them acquainted with its contents, or giving them any
further notice tiian by a note. He had proceeded some length
in reading his report before the other members of the committee,
who also brought a report with them, were prepared* The very
introduction of the report was directed against the committees;
it became therefore a question of life or death, and the whole
body of the assembly looked upon it as a crisis in their afiairs.
The boldest among the deputies had united and elected Thuriot,
a man with a brazen countenance, for the president of the day;
he had long been a well-known enemy of Robespierre. The
members of the committees, on their part, had availed themselves
of St. Jusf s withdrawal from their meeting to prepare a report
for his ruin. In the note above referred to, St. Just had informed
them he would commence reading his report at ten o'clock, and
Couthon appeared in the midst of them and commenced a fear-
ful strife of mutual recrimination, but notwithstanding they were
ready with their report at twelve o'clock. In their report they
proposed to the convention to cause Henriot and all the other
commanders of the national guards to be deposed and arrested,
Robespierre and his accomplices to be impeached^ and a procla*

§ H.] FBBNCH BBPUBLIC TILL JULY 1794, 517

mation to be issued announcing a new organization of the na-
tional guard.

The members of the committees no sooner appeared in the
assembly^ than St. Jusf s long and tedious report was interrupted
and he was unable to proceed. Robespierre placed his reliance
on Henriot and the jacobins^ who had sent people into the hall
among the deputies in order to determine the moment when the
assistance of the physical power of the jacobins was demanded;
but as he was anxious to lend his aid to St. Just^ he endeavoured
in vain to obtain a hearing. The two men of terror were cried
down^ and all the fists were clenched of which Danton had often
availed himself with success. Robespierre made vast efforts^ but
in vain ; with a mouth foaming with passion^ he claimed and de-
manded a right to be heard ; he was however insultingly shouted
down by the exclamation^ which his firiend Fouquier Tinville
usually addressed to those whom he accused. You cannot be heard*
He was obliged to jdeld to the ringing of the president's bell, and
Tallien succeeded in obtaining the privilege which was denied to
Robespierre. The jacobin spies were obliged to leave the assem-
bly, for Bourdon seized one of them by the collar and threw him
out of the door. During the tumult which now commenced in
the convention, all the cowards became brave and the victory
was secured. In the passage which we subjoin* Thibaudeau has
admirably described the joy which was experienced by himself
and all moderate men, when, to their surprise and astonishment,
they saw that effected by knaves, felons and rascals which ho-
nourable men could never have accomplished.

Barrere officiously pressed forward for the third time to give
the death-blow to a party of which he had been one of the most

* Thibaudeau, i. p. 82. "Depuis quelque terns Robespierre mena^ait Billaud
Varennes, Collot d'Herbois, Tallien, &c., ses ^mules et ses complices. La con-
vention ^toit aassi indifferente k leura dangers qu'elle I'avait et6 k la mort dc
Danton, et ii est probable qn'ils enssent succomb^ si Robespierre edt propose
leur proscription. Mais le sentiment de leurs p^opres perils leur donna I'au-
dace de le pr^venir, et, comme je I'ai d^j^ dit, la victoire 6toit toujours du c6te
de Tattaque. Tallien se lan9a le premier, les antres le suivirent, et la conven-
tion se souleva toat entiere. Ce fat une commotion ^iectrique. Robespierre
p&le, d^fait, veut parler ; il menace, il conjure, il supplie. Son fr^re. Saint
Just, essaient en vain de le d^fendre et de se justifier eux-mlmes. Un cri una-
nime, un seul cri, d baa h tvran ! se fait entendre et couvre leur voix. £t le
tyran qui la veille encore repandait Teffroi et I'^pouvante est enchain^ et con-
duit dans une de ces prisons remplies de ses propres victimes. O quelles
douces Amotions, quelles sensations d^ideuses eprouv^rent alors nos ames si
loDg^tems oppiess^es I "

518 FIFTH PSBIOD.-^SBOONO mVlSION. [OH. 1I«

zealous ; he rang the knell of the teiroristd in the same way as
he had done that of his friends the constitutionalists and the
girondists. He proposed the adoption of the report of the com-
mittees, by virtue of which the dreadful triumvirate^ together
with Lebas^ who had voluntarily joined them, Henriot^ Payan^
the younger Robespierre^ and others whose names we do not
think it necessary to mention, were arrested. The proclamation
to the people, announcing a new organization of the national
guard, was also decreed. The arrests were effected, the prison-
ers were to be sent to different places of confinement, and the
committee of government was fortunate enough to succeed in
arresting Henriot at the very moment when he was dashing
through the streets to call the people to arms. The convention
had adjourned their meeting till the evening, but at five o'clock
everything assumed a new appearance. The fiiends and partisanB
of the Mountain had appealed to the sections, and the common-
council of the city was active in their favour; Coffinhal had set
Henriot at liberty, and the latter, at the head of his mob, marched
into the court of the Tuileries, where the convention had again
assembled. Fortunately Henriot, who had brought cannon with
him, was intoxicated, and unable to prevail upon his cannoneers
to fire, however fierce they and the classes from which they were
chosen were ; he therefore withdrew and his people raised a cla-
mour and tumult in the streets, whereby the convention gained
time to adopt the measures necessary for the occasion.

Robespierre was to have been conveyed to the palace of the
Luxemburg, which then served as a prison ; but his client Wil-
strich, the cobbler, was commissary of poUce, and paid no atten-
tion to the commands of the committees, but rather contributed
to have Robespierre and his partisans brought to the Hotel de
Ville, and co-operated with their friends. Thibaudeau is of opi-
nion, that if Robespierre immediately after his liberation had not
lost time in consultations at the Hotel de Ville, but acted with
courage and rapidity, he would have proved victorious. It is
true he caused the men of the Mountain who had been arrested
vnih him to be set at liberty ; the convention however gained
time by his delay to denounce him and his accomplices as out-
laws. Whilst the decree was whispered about and announced
among the multitude of revolutionary men who had formerly
been servile creatures, but were now enemies of Robespierre, the
citizens of property and respectability were at the same time

§ II.] FBSNOH BBPUBLIO TILL JULY 1794. 519

called to arms to oppose and put down Henriof s rabble follow-
ers. The sections advanced towards the Place de la drive, where
the people were collected in crowds, and waited till their leader
had at length adopted his resolution in the Hotel de Ville. As
early as eleven o'clock, the convention, on the recommendation
of the united committees, conferred the command of the whole
armed force upon Barras, one of the deputies, who, because he
belonged to one of the most ancient noble families, had formerly
served as a lieutenant in the regiment Pondich^ry ; a number of
other deputies were however associated with him.

On every recurrence of disturbances afterwards in the dty,
Barras was again appointed commander-in-chief; he however
always employed persons as inferior commanders who had more
military experience than himself. The deputies associated with
him exercised for this one night the absolute power which the
deputies possessed over the armies, and as they rode through
the streets they made themselves known to the citizens by
wearing plumes and scarfs/. al* insignia of their rank. The de-
puties who were appointed olx this occasion were Ferrand, Fr^
ron, Bovere, Delmas, Bolletti, :Leonard Bourdon and Bourdon
de I'Oise. They divided .the* city amongst them, organized the
battalions of the sections -whitsh were hostile to the jacobins^
and from all sides advanced le^gainst the Place de la Orive, in front
of the Hotel de Ville. This occurred about three o'clock in the
morning, when the triumvirat^j were still engaged in consulta-
tion. Alarming reports of some apprehended fatality, which
were carefully spread, and the sentence of outiawry decreed by
the convention, which was proclaimed aloud, caused Henriof s
army suddenly to disperse ; the square was left empty, and the
gens d'armes forced their way into the Hotel de Ville, where they
found the outiaws concealed in the council-chamber. Henriot
and the president of the jacobin club were also in the room.

The whole history of men who had tyrannized over France
for two years, and filled the whole of Europe with alarm and
dread, was brought to a close at half-past three o'clock in the
morning, like the winding-up of a drama. St. Just alone yielded
to his fate and suffered, himself to be taken prisoner ; Lebas shot
himself with a pistol ; Robespierre made an attempt to do the
same, but the shot failed to take effect and merely broke his
under-jaw, so that thus horribly disfigured and covered with
blood, he was dragged about and afterwards guillotined. The

520 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH.II.

paralytic Couthon lay down under a table as if dead ; Henriot
crept into a sewer and was dragged out by a hook^ covered with
filth* Fouquier Tinville no sooner became aware of the con-
demnation of his protectors and friends^ than, like an able diplo-
matist, he sought to withdraw himself from their cause; he
hastened to the victorious convention and offered them his legal
services for renewed and redoubled executions. When his pro-
posals were badly received, he then endeavoured by chicanery
to procure some delay in the execution of his jacobins, amongst
whom was the whole common-council, and therefore to give them
some hope of deliverance by force.

In order that the outlaws might be immediately executed on
the 28th of July, the committees declared that the observance
of legal forms was unnecessary in the case of those who were
beyond the pale of the law, and that all that was required was
merely to have them brought before the revolutionary tribunal
in order to establish their identity. The persons placed before
this court on the 28th of July were, the two Robespierres, Cou-
thon, St. Just, Henriot, Dumas, president of the revolutionary
tribunal, Fleuriot, mayor of Paris, Payan, national agent or pro-
cureur of the commune, Vihier, vice-president of the tribunal^
together with twelve others, all outlaws. For the first time in
his life, Fouquier Tinville felt some legal scruples; he could
find no other means of establishing the identity of the parties,
except by the observance of the prescribed forms* ; Tallien
however helped the convention out of their difficulty respectmg
St. Just, in the same manner as the latter had lent them his aid
in the case of Danton's execution f*

In this way twenty-two persons were executed inmiediately
on the 28tb, and on the 29th and 30th seventy-two other jaco-
bins belonging to Kobespieire's partisans were guillotined;

* It was necessary, in order legally to establish personal identity, to have
the evidence of two of the magistrates of the city. Fouquier alleged, that as
all the officers of the city were under arrest, he could not obtain the prescribed
testimony.

t TaiUen said in the convention : " La convention doit prendre des mesures
pour que les conspirateurs soient frapp6s sans d6lai ; tout d61ai seroit pr^ju-
diciable k la r^publique. 11 faut que I'echafaud soit dress^ sur le champ,
qu'avec les tdtes de ses complices tombe aujourdhui la tSte de cet infame Ro-
bespierre, qui nous annongoit, qu'il croyoit k I'ltre supreme, et qui ne croyoit
qu'il la force du crime. II faut, que le sol de la r^publique soit purg6 d'un
monstre, qui £toit en mcsure, pour se faire proclamer roi. Je demande ^ue le
tribunal se retire par devant le comitS de iuriti gMrale pour prendre «e# ordre^
et qu'il retoume d aonpotte"

§ III.] EUROPEAN COALITION AGAINST PRANCE* 521

among those who fell a sacrifice on this occasion were most of
the common-council of Paris. During a few weeks following
the 9th Thermidor, it appeared as if the system of terror would
be increased instead of diminished, for those who were called
ThermidoreanSj or conquerors of Robespierre, constituted the
rump of the old Dantonist party. People without conscience or
principle, such as Fouch^ Barras, Fr^ron, Legendre and Tallien,
were worse than Couthon and St. Just, because they were not
visionaries or enthusiasts, but made a cool calculation both of
the amount and objects of their crimes. These men however
bad lost their support and irreconcileably offended the populace,
who alone could protect them against the vengeance of the bet-
ter class of the citizens ; the moderates, or indvlgents as they were
called, re-collected their energies and vigour, and their vengeance
speedily overtook Fouquier Tinville, Carrier and Lebon. Thi-
baudeau, in the passage quoted in the note*, informs us of the
manner in which the peaceful and intelligent friends of freedom
at that time acquired courage. We prefer the brief judgements
of those eye-witnesses respecting the events of the 9th Ther-
midor to all the declamations of French and German rhetori-
cians f.

§111.

EUROPEAN COALITION TO PROMOTE THE OBJECTS OP THE
ENGLISH PLUTOCRACY TILL THE END OF 1794.

From the 4th of August 1789, the French revolution took a
direction which seemed more dangerous to the English aristo-
cracy and hierarchy, the offspring of the middle ages, and which
since the sixteenth century has been strengthened by the pluto-
cracy, than to any of the strictly monarchical thrones in Europe.
The monarchs had nothing to fear, for every intelligent man saw
that France could never stand as a republic. The anxiety and

* Thibaudeau, M^moires, i. p. 59 : " Comme le commun de Tassembl^e,
j'^tais sous la foule et ne la dirigeais pas. II m'importait done peu qu'elle Mt
daDS les mains de Danton ou dans celles de Robespierre ; dans cea combats je
ne voyais qu'an changement de tyrans, et non la fin de la tyrannie."

t Thibaudcau, 1. c. p. 86 : " Le 9 Thermidor fut done Teffet da basard,
comme la plujiart des grands ^venemens dans I'histoire. Sont ils funestes^
rhomme ne manqne pas d'en accuser le sort ; sont ils heureuz, 11 les attribue
k sa pr^voyance et k sa sagesse. Apr^ la victoire chacun se disputait I'hon-
&ear d'y avoir plus ou moins ooncoum.''

522 FIFTH PERIOD.— 8BCOND DIVISION. [CH« II*

dread of the English aristocracy were also unfounded; appear-
ances of danger may have deceived Burke and some radicals
waiting for an opportunity of change^ but they did not deceive
Pitt Pitt and every genuine Englishman well knew that his
people were like those of Rome in the time of Caesar. The ari-
stocracy was corrupt, but not physically enervated, and possessed
all the practical pre-eminence of the Romans of that period ; for
we are now speiddng only of what has influence and power in
life. Natioufd pride, national glory, contempt for every one who
is not an Englishman (a foreigner, that is barbarua), compen-
sates John Bull, as similar feelings formerly did the Romulidae^
for the insolence and pride of the aristocracy, which swallows
up his wealth, but is also able and equal to everything. Every
one believes himself to possess some share in the prosperity of
the country and in the extension of its dominion, even although
mUlions are starving : although the poor are treated like crimi-
nals and worse, yet no one doubts himself to be a citizen of the
first nation in the world. Pitt and his party knew this well;
a party which admirably understood how to guide and use
public opinion. All those persons who from generation to ge*
neration support one another, for appearance sake are divided
into two parties, and laugh in their sleeve at the ignorance or
easiness of the people, remained perfectly unmoved as to any
danger to themselves, even when Burke was already raving and
pouring out the vials of his wrath against the French republicans.
In the disputes and contests among the French, as they did
then and do now in the corruption and meanness of the Indian
rajahs, they merely saw a means of extending the dominion of
England, or of increasing her trade and navigation. The En-
glish never thought of war, till war appeared to be fiivourable to
their speculations.

The English ministry, the aristocracy, king George III., whom
Pitt was obliged to keep in good humour, whilst they appeared
publicly impartial, did all in their power to forward the views of
the French aristocracy, and to stimulate the exertions of the
monarchical courts and ministries of the continent. All the plans
devised by the king, the queen, the princes and the foreign courts
were secretly supported by the English aristocracy and the court
of St. James's; the noble emigrants and bishops found an asylum;
and although England publicly denied all participation in the
resolutions of the congress of Pilnitz, it escaped the attention <^

§ III.] EUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 628

no one who had any opportunity- of making himself acquainted
with the course of the passing intrigues, that the English mi-
nistry fiiUy concurred in its determinations. The manner in
which Burke afterwards, as an orator and writer, contrived to
kindle into a flame of fanaticism the attachment of the people in
fiivour of what is called church and king, as well as for the
maintenance of their own comforts, has been already stated $
their attachment to their nobility, clergy, jurists and capitalists,
who use them as an estate, was also increased. From the time
of Burke's crusade and the speeches by which he recommended it,
which were published in the newspapers, re-touched and extended
as the necessity of the case might require, the moderate party
among the people soon almost disappeared, or was everywhere
subjected to abuse and persecution. The whole of Europe soon
became conscious, that every Englishman is as firmly wedded to
his ancient customs, prejudices and traditions, as an Italian, old
Bavarian, WestphaUan, a native of Treves, or as one of the old
Swiss was and is attached to the pope and the Jesuits. The
societies formed in England and Ireland to promote the prin-
ciples of the revolution, the approbation which some of the peo-
ple of England bestowed on Paine's ^ Rights of Man,' the em-
bassy which was sent by the Constitutional Society of London to
Paris in 179I> in order to congratulate the president and mem-
bers of the national assembly on the events which had taken
place, were all objects not only favourable to, but earnestly de-
sired by the tories ; they extremely facilitated Pitfs labour in in-
spiring both the king and the people with fanaticism. George III.
and his people, who were equally filled with prejudices and ani-
mated by an instinct for their own advantage, abhorred every^
thing which was not "church and king*'; even Talleyrand Pd-
rigord, who was a master in hypocrisy and the very model of
diplomatists, for this reason completely failed in his attempt to
win over the English ministry in favour of the poEtics of the
visitors of madame de Stael's saloons.

The adherents and partisans of the first untenable French con-
stitution were threatened, at the end of the year 1791, by the re-
publicans from within and by the continental powers from with-
out ; they therefore sent Talleyrand, bishop of Autun and friend of
Mirabeau, who had died in the winter of 1791, to England. He
was commissioned by the unfortunate Delessart to endeavour to
prevail upon Pitt to withdraw from all conneidon with the con«^

{24 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

spiracies of the princes^ exnigrantSj the emperor^ and the king of
Prussia. The vfhole embassy was the production of those saloon
and cabinet intrigues which were looked upon as crimes by the
jacobins of the old government and by those distinguished men
who were called constitutionalists. Tdleyrand could not assume
the character of an ambassador^ because^ according to a law of the
constituent assembly, any one who had been a member of that
body was forbidden to accept any political office from the exe-
cutive authorities till after the expiration of four years from the
termination of its sittings ; he was therefore obliged to put for-
ward another individual as nominal ambassador. The title was
conferred upon the young and fashionable marquis de Chauvelin,
whom Louis XVI. wished to remove from courts because^ as
maitre de la garde-robey he was in the way. The due de Biron^
who^ as well as Talleyrand^ belonged to the liberal party^ accom-
panied him to London in January 1792, in order to deliver a
pretended confidential letter from Louis XVI. to the king; king
Louis however had long before given a hint that he had no con-
fidence whatever either in Talleyrand or Biron. This embassy
and its results are the best proofs that the jacobins were right,
when they alleged^ that the whole state must speedily fall to ruin
unless a single party soon gained the upper hand. Talleyrand
moreover had at that time very different instructions from those
which guided Chauvelin^ who was inclined towards the republi-
cans. In this way the constitutionalists^ who had sent Talleyrand^
firustrated everything which Chauvelin commenced^ whilst king
Louis would hear nothing of the services or plans of either the
one or the other. This was altered as soon as Dumourier ob-
tained the ministry.

Under Diunourier, Talleyrand was very active in London;
but he was unable to prevent Pitt from entering into secret ne-
gotiations with Austria and Prussia. On the breaking out of
the war, Dumourier even offered to submit the whole question
between Austria and Prussia on the one hand and France on the
other^ to the mediation of England. This indeed Pitt declined;
he however gave an assurance that England would remain neu-
tral in the war^ for he did not find it advantageous to take part
till there was some appearance of booty to be shared. In Sep-
tember Talleyrand again returned to London with a mission and
a passport from Danton^ which enabled him to withdraw ftom
the scene of the September massacre^ and there intrigued for a

4 III.] BUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FBANCB. 525

long time with success; but he had both the republicans in
Paris and the emigrants in London against him. After the 10th
of August England had declared against the repubKcans, re-
called their ambassador (lord Gower) firom Paris^ and informed
Chauvelin that he could no longer be officially received ; he how-
ever at first remained for a time in London as a private man*
Tallejrrand continued to pursue his intrigues till the occupation
of Belgium and the expedition against Holland compelled Pitt to
throw off the mask. Immediately after the victory gained by
the French at Jemappes, Pitt offered assistance to the Dutch;.
Van Spiegel^ who at that time was at the helm of affairs in Hol-
land^ at first declined the offer, in order first to be able to make
some preparations for the war; but Dumourier immediately
attacked Holland after the conquest of Belgium. He caused
thejiavigationof the Scheldt to be proclaimed firee, made an in-
cursion into the United Provinces, and suffered the enemies of
the stadtholder, who had taken refuge in France and Belgium,
to organise an insurrection* At the close of the year therefore,
Holland was obliged to appeal to England for assistance and
protection*

In England and Ireland various patriotic societies had sent
addresses to the national convention ; Pitt availed himself of this
circumstance to unite all the English of the old school by means
of loyal associations into a description of fanatical league against
all innovation or change* In all the towns and villages of the
kingdom, the majority of persons of property, who began to be
apprehensive for their wealth, formed themselves into societies
for the maintenance and support of everything old, or as they
termed it, of church and state, and the ministry was soon able to
rely with certainty upon this, that every species of opposition to
themeasuresof the govemmentwould be regarded as high treason.
Almost at the same time as the English made the first proposals
for a coalition in Vienna, the national convention ftunished the
desired pretence for inducing the continental powers, by the
liberal employment of English money, to assail France by land,
whilst England destroyed her naval force, deprived her of her
colonies and wrested away her trade. The English proposals
were made in Vienna on the 25th of November 1792, and on
the 29th the national convention committed a gross violation of
the well-understood law of nations both against England and
other states.

S26 FIFTH PBRIOD. — 8SOOND DIVISION. [CH« lU

On the 19th of November the national convention issued a
decree^ promising to all nations which should rise against their
governments the sympathy and assistance of the French people ;
on the 28th the convention appeared as if they meant to realize
their promise in the case of England* It not only received a
deputation of the English and Irish then residing in Paris, on
which occasion numerous declamations were made in the re-
publican style of the day, but it even entered into relations and
connected itself with persons who were merely laughed at in
England. Pitt undoubtedly was very glad that the convention
thus exposed itself to ridicule, and thereby furnished him with
an opportunity of using the circumstance as a stimulus to pro*
voke the zeal and encourage the fanaticism of the church*and-
king men in England. There was a society formed in England^
consisting of persons of very inconsiderable weight, for the pur-
poses of obtaining and circulating canttUutional information.
This society sent John Frost and Joel Barlowe, who were per*
sons of no note at home, on an embassy to Paris, and this very
important embassy was honourably received by the convention.
They deUvered some radical speeches, and Gregoire, who was at
that time president, although of somewhat higher condition than
John Frost, returned them an answer in his kind, visionary and
rhetorical style.

Pitt, whose offer to form a coaUtion the emperor had accepted,
availed himself of this circumstance to urge the old English,
from a feeling of anxiety for their comforts and hatred to the
French, to make such efforts, even before the declaration of
war, as they would with difficulty have consented to even in
war, without the assistance of the loyal church«and*king socie*
ties. Parliament was summoned to meet in the beginning of
January 17^3, and a proclamation was issued, such as if those
who issued it really believed the existence of English power, the
church and monarchy, to be threatened with destruction. It
was stated in the midst of peace, that it was the intention of the
government to embody a part of the militia of the kingdom. In
order to give great importance to the dread, which was' just as
little felt from the machinations of John Frost, Joel Barlowe and
their associates, as from the Irish, troops were marched into th«
capital, the defences of the Tower strengthened and repaired,
double guards placed at the Bank, and the shameless lord Lough-
borough, who as solicitor-general Wedderbume had displayed

§ in.] EUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 527

Buch grossness and vulgarity in his attacks upon Franklin, was
elevated to the dignity of lord-chancellor in the room of lord
Thurlow, and created English Marats and Frerons. Pitt brought
a number of men into parliament, whose particular business was,
by absurd, violent and noisy harangues, to work upon the masses
and to raise a general feeling of indignation throughout the coun-
tiy, by means of which the minister himself would have been
ashamed. These intolerable preachers of fenaticism and hatred
to France were afterwards designated by all intelligent persons
as the alarmuis.

Burke was leader of the band, and under him Windham, Elliot,
Armstruther and others rendered suit and service according to
their abilities; they were therefore well rewarded by the mi-
nistry. The proposal of the English ministry to form a coalition
against France had been accepted by Austria and Prussia in the
beginning of December, and the coalition affair, as far as Prussia
was concerned, fell completely into the hands of the diplomatic
triumvirate. Haugwitz, who had been hitherto ambassador at
the imperial court, was called to form a part of the cabinet in
Berlin, and the marquis Lucchesini was sent to Vienna to arrange
the terms of the coalition. The negotiations by which Talley*
rand firustrated the official labours of the marquis Chauvelin were
therefore attended by no results, because the English and Dutch
were openly preparing for war, and Lebrun, the French minister
of foreign affairs, was compelled to assume another tone, in a
note delivered by Chauvelin in December, — a tone which was as
little approved of by the minister as by the ambassador. This
note was directly in contradiction to all that Talleyrand, in Le-
brun's name, had been whispering into the ears of the English*
Grenville, who was at that time minister of foreign affiurs, re-
plied in a harsh tone, that he could take no cognizance whatever
of the French republic, and would carry on no correspondence
except with the representative of the sovereign of France. The
war would already have broken out in the beginning of January
1793, had it not been delayed for a few weeks by some cabals
entered into with two of the French ministers, by Dumourier in
Belgium and Talleyrand in London, who were both masters in
that art.

Garat, Danton's successor as minister of justice, had come to
an understanding with Lebrun, and both with Dumourier and
Talleyrand* They had consented to a conference being held in

528 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH. II.

Antwerp between Dumourier^ Van Spi^el^ the Dutch minister,
and lord Auckland^ the English ambassador at the Hague;
Pache, Monge and Clavi^res, and therefore the majority of the
ministers, were however afraid of these intriguers, and would
not listen to the proposal of Dumourier's journey to London*
Notwithstanding Talleyrand's great abilities and skiU, he failed
in this negotiation, and in consequence of his intimate connexion
with Dumourier on this occasion, he was afterwards impeached
and was obliged to seek an asylum in America till September 1 795.
The whole church-and-king party in England was at this time ex-
cited to a high pitch of indignation by the king's trial in France,
and Pitt and GrenvUle were obliged to take advantage of the
public opinion. The whole body of the aristocracy, and even
the opposition, in order to avoid being isolated, besought the mi*
nistry to use all their energies in favour of the king; this fur-
nished a pretence for the delay, but it was of no aviul, because
even the noble-minded application of the king of Spain had
proved fruitless. The king of Spain offered to withdraw the whole
of his troops from the frontiers ; caused his minister Ocariz to
promise the strictest neutrality on his part in the war agreed
upon by England, Prussia, Austria, Holland and Sardinia with
Russia, and even offered to conclude an alliance with new France,
provided the life of the king was spared. It was however to no
purpose to negotiate with people such as those by whom the
convention was ruled ; they could not and dare not stand still.
Charles IV. even made an attempt through Ocariz to corrupt
the leading deputies in the convention by money, and appro-
priated two millions of francs for that purpose ; this was also in
vain.

Lebrun and Garat hoM*ever still entertained some hopes of
being at least able to open new negotiations with England, till
the moment that Chauvelin and Talleyrand were ordered to
leave the country ; they therefore sent over Maret (Buonaparte's
duke of Bassano) ; he however was not admitted even to an au-
cUence, because on the arrival of the news of Louis XVL's exe-
cution, Chauvelin received notice to leave London in twenly-four
hours and England in eight days. Dumourier, notwithstanding
this, continued to carry on his intrigues. Lord Auckland and
Tan Spiegel, the grand pensionary of Holland, wished to meet
him in Moerdyk; but Brissot frustrated all Dumourier's cabals,
by proposing a declaration of war in the convention on the Ist

§ in.] EUJtOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 529

of February 1793, in the name of the committee for the manage-
ment of foreign afiairs, and his proposal met with a favourable
reception.

As early as the 11th of February, George IlL announced to
the parliament that war had been declared on the part of France
against England and Holland* It now appeared as if the chief
of the European powers would unite all their strength against
France. It was arranged that the Prussians should advance
firom Mayence, the Austrians from Belgium, and that the English
and Dutch should make an incursion into that country along the
coast of Belgium : Saxons, Hanoverians and Hessians were to
serve in the Prussian army, whilst the Bavarians and the impe-
rial contingents from Swabia and Franconia were to join the
Austrians. In March and April, England prevailed upon Sar-*
dinia, Spain and Portugal to join the European alliance. Pitt
came to terms with the Russians, according to which the latter
bound themselves to secure certain advantages in trade to the
English, and particularly to restrict that of the French ; whilst
the English on their part were to allow the Russians to take
their own course in Poland, and, finally, even consented to the
occupation of the free city of Danzig. The newspaper articles
of the empress Catharine II., in which she vehemently blames
the French and gives assurance to the English that she would
send a fleet and 40,000 men to their aid, as soon as they had
landed in Belgium, were indeed never fulfilled ; but two treaties*,
which were concluded in March, in addition to the promise of
taking a part in the alliance against France, also contain the as*
surance of considerable advantages in duties and of restrictions
imposed upon the trade with France.

In March and April some of the Oerman princes, and espe«
dally those of Hesse and the Bavarian palatinate, received En-
glish money; a fixed sum was also secured to the king of Sar-
dinia during the continuance of the war, and even Spain was
supported and assisted by money. The contract with Hesse
contained a stipulation which must always be a matter of sorrow
to German patriots, that the 8000 Hessians which were sold to
England, to which 4000 more were afterwards added, were not

* The docnmentB are to be found in part v. of Marten's ' Recaeil des Prin*
cipaax Trait^/ where the five articles of the commercial treaty are given ; and
then the treaty of alliance, in which the chief points are contained in articles
ii. and iii. The same book, pp. 120 — 123» also contains the documents con-
nected with the taking possession of Danzig.

VOL. VI. 2 M

5S0 VIFTH PXRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [0H« II.

onlj to be employed in the Prussian army on the Rhine^ but in
case of necessity might be ordered by the English government
to England or Ireland'!'. In the treaty of the 25th of April, by
which Sardinia entered into the coalition^ the English promised
to pay a sum of 200,000/. yearly. Spain, which had been go-
verned by Charles IV., or rather by his wife and her worthless
favourites from the year 1788, was placed by England in a situa-
tion to equip a fleet, which was to join that of England and to
cruise in the Mediterranean ; in this treaty, concluded on the
25th of May, no subsidies were mentioned. On the 12th of
July the queen of Naples also was purchased by the English for
the coalition, for she also promised, on the terms agreed on, to
send 6000 troops to the army of the coalition, four ships of the
line, four frigates and four smaller vessels to the fleet.

At the time in which these respective treaties were concluded
by the English, they at length hoped to be able completely to
weaken France by a partition, because Dampierre, who had re-
ceived the command of the army of the north, on Dumourier's
desertion to the enemy, had been obliged to retreat, and the
Prussians were besieging Mayence. In the case of the present
however, as in that of all coalitions, there was not only a great
want of unity, but there was not one of all the leaders who was
fit to conduct a war, which was to be carried on, not against an
army of mercenaries, but against the whole body of the warlike
people of France. As early as the end of March the English
landed 8000 of their own troops and 13,000 Hanoverians; the
latter was commanded by field-marshal Freytag, but the chief
distinction was conferred on the duke of York, who was the com-
mander of the English. As ofiicers have assured us, who haye
served in the English army, the duke may have had some capa-
cities for the administration of affairs, of which we cannot judge,
but both then and afterwards, on every occasion, he gave abun-
dant proofs that he was wholly useless in the field. His brothers
Adolphus and Ernest, who were likewise with the army, were by
no means fit for any service whatever in the field, and prince

* lliifl may be deduced from the following daoae of the seventh article of
the treaty : " If it shall happen, that they should he employed in Great BritaU
or Irekmd, as soon as the notification in eoch caae shonld be made to the se-
rene landgrave/' Sec. Tliis treaty is dated April the 10th» and on the 2Srd of
August another agreement was signed in the Prussian head- quarters, in which
the landgrave promisee, in the terms specified^ to fumiih 4000 additional troops
in three weeks.

§ III.] EUROPEAN COALITION AGAIN8T PRAlfCE. 531

Ernest even at that time was universally hated. William Fre«
derick, the eldest son of the hereditary stadtholder, was at the
head of 7000 Dutch troops^ who were afterwards joined by his
brother Frederick with 10,000 more, who were to unite with the
English landed at Ostend and to form a junction with Coburg's
army.

Some opinion may be formed of the small care which had
been taken to adopt the necessary measures in order quickly to
profit by the highly unfavourable circumstances of the moment
in France by the fact, that the Prussians before MayencCj as
well as the Austrians in their attacks upon Cond^ and Valen-^
ciennes, would have been reduced to the greatest difficulties had
not the Dutch supplied them with some heavy artillery. The
Dutch were obliged to send twenty gun-boats to enable the
Prussians to carry on the siege of Mayence^ and when the prince
of Cobuzg was desirous of attacking Cond^ and Valenciennes,
the Dutch were obliged to lend him 150 pieces of heavy artillery,
which they parted with very unwillingly, because they were
afraid, as really happened, that they would be lo8t« This opi-*
nion was publicly expressed by the g^rand pensionary Van Spie«
gel, as early as the end of May, when he saw how totally incom*
petent prince Josias was for the supreme command, how bad
and corrupt the whole aristocratic administration of the Au«
strians and how ruinous the whole system of contracts were, of
which highly respectable merchants in Frankfort afterwards
related to ourselves things almost beyond credibility. Van Spie*
gel not only lamented over the apprehended loss of the artillery,
but predicted the defeat, and even spoke of withdrawing the army
of the Netherlands. The prince of Coburg and his adviser Mack
proceeded quite methodically, but just for that reason very slowly,
in their attack upon Cond^ and Valenciennes, and in order to
enable them to undertake the siege of the latter, they were
obliged to call in the assistance of the duke of York.

After the capture of Frankfort in December 1792> the duke
of Brunswick proceeded as methodically as the duke of Coburg
in the Netherlands; the French had therefore time to throw
22,000 men under generals D'Oyr^ and Dubayet into the fortresa
of Mayence. Under these generals two other heroes of the re«
volutionary times served, one of whom (Kleber) is known as a
rival of Buonaparte, and the other, Dessaix, as one of the few
among his generals who did not disgrace thei^selves by avarice

2m 2

SS2 riFTH PSBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

and meanness*. Merlin of Thionville and Beubel^ who were
the deputies fiom the oonventiony also distinguished themselTes
daring the defence of the fortress, which held oat till July 1793,
and did not capitulate till want and hanger had reached an in-
credible extent The Austrians had sent two divisions to the
Prussian army, one under prince Hohenlohe Kirchberg and the
other under Wunnser. The prince was afterwards ordered to
the Meuse, and Wunnser advanced against Alsace. Wurmser
however would not receive any orders from the duke of Bruns-
wick^ and at length it was agreed, after long and warm disputes,
that all orders for Wurmser should be sent immediately from the
king of Prussia himself and not from the duke ; and for this
reason the duke afterwards annoyed him in eveiy way he could.

The king of Prussia and count Kalkreuth afterwards besieged
Mayence with an army of 50,000 men, whilst the duke^ in com-
mand of a corps of observation, very unmllingly marched to the
dueich, in order to support Wurmser, if the latter should ad-
vance to the Vosges. On the capitulation of Mayence, the
Prussians were guilty of the oversight to which we have already
referred ; the garrison, it is true, were obliged to agree not to
serve against the allies for a year, but among these the French
on the Loire were not expressly included, and Dubayet and
Kleber were therefore sent against the insurrectionary districts.
When the whole of the Prussian army were thus set at liberty to
serve in the field, the duke proceeded so systematically, that the
committee of public welfare was enabled to get on foot and
organize a considerable national force. Immediately on the
commencement of its career, the committee had set on foot ten
armies, which they continued to keep up to their fiill numbers,
and to maintain, by all the means which the revolutionary con-
dition of France enabled them to command.

The army of the north and that of Ardennes had passed from
Dumourier to Dampierre, from the latter to Custine, and after-
wards Houchard was appointed to undertake the command.
This general had been previously in command of the second army,
or that of the Moselle. Alexander Beauhamais was at the head
of the army of the Rhine, Kellermann had the command of that
of the Alps, whilst those of Italy and the East and West Pj^renees,
were respectively entrusted to Brunet, Deflers and Dubousquet.

* JuBtissimus onus

Qui fuit in Teucris et amantissimus eqai.

§ III.] EUROPEAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 533

The western coast from La Rochelle to the Loire was occupied by
an army under Canclaux, another had been stationed on the Chan-
nel coast as early as the beginning of 17^3, and was commanded
by Wimpfen^ and Westermann was at the head of the army of
the west. All this had been done as early as May, and in June,
when the Gironde was overthrown, the warlike energy of the na-
tion was doubled.

Some opinion may be formed of the methodical system ac-
cording to which prince Josias, as well as the duke of Brunswick,
renewed their recollections of the seven years' war, even after
the taking of Conde by capitulation on the 11th of July, by ex-
amining the minute and official reports contained in the contribu-
tions to the Austrian history of the war. The committee of public
welfare attached all the blame of the surrender of Conde to Cus-
tine. He was accordingly executed, and Houchard appointed in
his stead, who however proved unable to deliver Valenciennes,
which was besieged by the duke of York. After the fall of Va-
lenciennes, all unity between the prince of Coburg on the one
hand and the English and Dutch on the other ceased at the same
time, as the disputes between Wurmser and the duke of Brunswick
led to very bad consequences in the army of the Rhine. On the
taking of Valenciennes, the Austrians showed too clearly their in-
tention of fishing in troubled waters, and offended both the emi-
grants and the English by taking possession of Cond^ and Valen-
ciennes as a property, and not as a trust. Van Spiegel drily said
on this occasion, that no time must be lost, in order that each of the
powers might also take possession of the portion of the districts pre- -
vumsly allotted to them. The wretched Mack, even at this time
full of fear, recommended peace, and was sent away from the army
for a time ; the duke of York, however, in the spirit of Van Spie-
gePs idea, laid siege to Dunkirk*, wliilst Clairfait invested Ques-
noy and prince Coburg blockaded Maubeuge, somewhat in the
same fashion as he would have done in the seven years^ war.
The French availed themselves of the determination of their
enemies to persevere in the old system to attack them by an
entirely new method. The plans pursued by these systematists
may be learned from the fact, that the allied armies of 130,000

* The author canDot allow himself to enter into criticisms upon military
operations. He therefore refers to the ' Austrian Military Magazine,' second
edit., vol. i. part 2. pp. 129# 130 in the note, for an account of the English
claims in the siege of Dunkirk.

534 riFTH PBBIODw— SBCOND DIVISION. [CH, II.

men were not only completely sepamted and scattered about in
the sieges of Maubeuge^ Quesnoy and Donkirk, but when the
king of Prussia recalled his 8000 men under Enobelsdorf from
Coburg's army^ and sent them instead of 15^000 under Brogbcfa
to Treves, the marching and remarching of these two armies kept
23,000 totally useless for six weeks.

Whilst the Dutch and English, reinforced by 37,000 Aa-
strians under Alvinzy, were suffering great want before Dun-
kirk, and even the water for drinking was obliged to be brought
by sea, Camot, on his entrance into the committee of public wd-
fiure, was entrusted with the war department: he established a
system which Suwarrow and Buonaparte always followed, in
opposition to the tedious and methodical operations of the seven
years' war. The object of the latter system was to spare human
life ; the former never hesitated to sacrifice thousands for the at-
tainment of any important object. Houchard was now at the head
of the army of the north, and in compliance with the new plans
sent from Paris, he was to be reinforced by fresh troops sent hj
post-horses fit)m the armies of the Rhine and the Moselle, and
to attack the English and Dutch : the allies had taken such
bad measures for obtaining information, that they had no sus-
picion either of his reinforcements or his designs. On the 6th
of September, Houchard, with a superior force, fell upon the
Hanoverians and Hessian mercenaries at Hondsooote, and drove
them from their positions. Freytag was wounded in the action
and obliged to surrender the command to Wallmoden ; prince
Adolphus was taken prisoner, but again recovered by the Hano-
verians and imperial forces. On the following day the duke of
York appeared and a regular engagement took place at Hond-
sooote, in which neither he nor Wallmoden, according to our
authorities, displayed any military talents whatever. The allies
were beaten on the following day (the 9th of September), obliged
to raise the siege, and the besieging army on its retreat sufifered
all its baggage and heavy artillery (fifty-two pieces) to fall into
the hands of the enemy.

When the duke of York separated from the main army, the
latter,45,000 strong, in the middle of August, remained stationary
between Denainx and Bettignies, in order to cover the sieges of
Maubeuge and Quesnoy. Quesnoy was at length taken on the
11th of September by Clairfait, at the same time as the Dutch and
English were hard-pressed by the French. The prince of Cobuiig

§ III.] BUROPSAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 535

hastened to their relief. Houehard suffered considerable loss,
was driven out of Flanders, and he, as well as generals Hedou*-
ville and Landrin, paid the penalty of defeat with his life.
Jourdan was appointed commander*in-chief of the army of
the north in his stead. This army was soon extraordinarily
reinforced, whilst those of the allies, amounting to 102,000 men,
were much scattered, Coburg covered the siege of Maubeuge,
which was at length seriously commenced; the duke of York,
with his main force, remained in Menin, but the intrigues of the
Austrian and Prussian cabinets threw everything into confusion*
About this period, a person was advanced to the head of the
Austrian cabinet, who although only the son of a poor boatman,
left more money behind him than any minister by whom he had
been preceded, which gives a high probability to the reproaches
which were made against him, from the time in which he played
a character among the Turks till the end of his life. Prince von
Kaunitz-Rittberg, the old chancellor of the empire, retired com*
pletely from public life; vice-chancellor Cobenzl and baron
Spielmann were easily put aside, and the son of Thunichtgut (Do- .
no*good), the boatman, whose name Maria Theresa changed into
baron Thugut, came to the helm of affairs in the Austrian cabi-
net. He had commenced his career in Constantinople, where
all the arts of treachery, falsehood and corruption have found a
home ever since the times of the Byzantine empire. In the
negotiations for peace between the Russians and Turks, he was
liberally bribed by the Russians, and contrived at the same time
that the court of Vienna should retain the millions which the
Turks paid for aid which was never given. Frederick II,
thoroughly saw through him when he wished to try his little
arts upon him in the negotiations of 1778) and his ministers
Herzberg and Finkenstein were not deceived in his character.
He also proved himself an excellent ambassador at the court of
the notorious queen Caroline, who governed in Naples, whilst
her husband spent the whole of his time in hunting and fishing.
Having left Naples, he entered upon a new field of bribery and
intrigues in Warsaw, and afterwards perfected himself in dl the
arts of diplomatic subtlety among the Russians and Greeks
in Moldavia and Wallachia. He was then employed anew
in making peace with the Turks, and finally sent to Paris.
When there he took charge of affairs, of which count Mercy,
who was properly speaking the ambassador, was probably

536 FIFTH PERIOD,— SECOND DIVISION. [OH. II.

ashamed. Among the things which he effected in Paris, the
reconciUation of Mirabeau with the court is specially mentioned^
which was also somewhat profitable to him. He would willingly
have remained longer at Paris at that time, but the English and
queen Caroline had need of his services in Vienna, and thither
tiie easily-tempted emperor suffered him to come. From that
time he became the source of all evil to Austria. He first
assisted the prince of Coburg to obtain the post of commander-
in-chief, and from March 1793, in the character of director-
general of foreign afiairs, sold the German empire and the
emperor to the highest bidder.

A man of this description, full of all kinds of petty artifices,
chicanery and diplomatic tricks, was not in a condition to em-
brace or adopt any enlarged views at the decisive moment in the
month of September 1793. Coburg, at his suggestion, took
possession of the French fortresses as Austrian conquests, and
thus deeply offended both the allies and the emigrants. At
the time when Clsdrfait at length formed a junction with Co-
burg before Maubeuge, the allies thought they perceived that
Austria wished only to use them in order to extend the bound-
aries of her own territory. The duke of York remained quiet ;
the Dutch were long weary of the war; and the Prussians longed
to withdraw and became very indolent. The French were de-
termined to rescue Maubeuge at any cost, and the deputies of
the convention, who were with the army, urged Jourdan to
make the boldest ventures. On the 15th of October, at Wat-
tignies, with 40,000 men, he attacked Clairfait, the only Au-
strian general who reaped any honour or reputation in this cam-
paign. Clairfait, at the head of 18,000 men, maintained his
position on the 15 th ; the French however were strongly rein-
forced during the night : the duke of York did not quicken his
movements, whilst Carnot, as deputy from the convention, on
the 16th dismissed a general of division in the sight of the enemy,
and took the command in person in the renewed attack upon the
heights which commanded Maubeuge. The Austrians gave way,
and the French conquered the heights, the occupation of which
brought them into connexion with Maubeuge*. Ckdrfait, as well as

* Memoires de Carnot, p. 57 :— "Carnot, tonjours k la tdte des troupes, ne
tarda pas k s'appercevoir de cette hesitation qui mena^ait de devenir funeste ;
apr^s avoir retir^ ces corps de leur position pour les faire mettre en bataille sar
un plateau (51ev^, en vue de toute Tarmeei il destitua solennellement le general
qui les commandait : mettant alors pied k terre et prenant le fusil d'un grenadier*

4 HI.] EUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 537

Carnot, blamed the prince of Coburg and regarded him as wholly
unfit to command^ because he retreated immediately after the
unsuccessful engagement of the 16th, and thereby gave up the
cause of the Austrians as lost. If we compare Camot's judge-
ment, united with that of another able Frenchman, which we
give in a note*, with the report in the Austrian military journals,
we shall be able to form some opinion of the manner in which
that kind of history is created which is said to be derived from
authentic documents. As the Austrian army, as usual, was
suffering from want of everything, even provisions and horses,
and as the French were anxious to make preparations for a great
effort in spring, there was a practical cessation of arms in Bel-
gium from the IQth of November. At that time the committee
of public welfare was victorious in all directions. Lyons fell in
October, Toulon was taken on the 19th of December, and thereby
another turn was given to the war in the Pyrenees, which had
hitherto been unsuccessful. On the 22nd of September, the
Spaniards were still in possession of St Elme, CalUoure and Port-
Vendre, in the department of the Eastern Pyrenees, and of almost
the whole department of the West Pyrenees ; immediately after*
wards, Dugommier, who had reduced Toulon, appeared, and not
only drove the Spaniards out of France, but attacked them in
their own country.

On the Rhine, the disunion between the Prussians and Au--
8trians,but especially the ill-will of the duke of Brunswick, gave
rise to all sorts of diplomatic notes and messages, at a time when

il 86 mit k la tSte de la colonne de droite, tandis qu'un autre de sea collogues,
comme lui en costume de repr^sentant, marchait S celle de gauche avec le g^-
n^ral en chef Jourdan. Rien ne put alora r^sister iL la vaJeur et k I'imp^-
tuosit^ de no8 troupes ; la colonne k la t^te de laquelle se trouvait Camot
p^n^tra bientdt dans le village de Wattignies a travers des chemias creux
combl^s de cadavres ; en vain la cavallerie ennemie tenta plusieurs charges,
dont celle qui fut engag^ dans un terrain resserr^ y trouva son tombeau."

* Camot among other places says, p. 59 :— " Les troupes victorieuses
rest^rent au bivouac toute la nuit pour se mettre le lendemain matin k la pour-
suite de Tennemi, achever sa d^ute et p^n^trer dans la place de Maubeuge,
qui ^toit encore k deux lieues ; mais I'ennemi appr^iant la situation critique
oil il se trouvait, s'il ne repassait la Sambre avant une troisi^me bataille se
h&ta/' &c. Another French authority says of this affair in general : — " Apr^s
quarante jours d'un sidge 6pouvantable, auquel avoient pris part 60,000
hommes, Maubeuge fut e^n d^vr^ par le courage des troupes Fran9aise8 qui
durant quarante-huit heures se battirent avec Tenthousiasme et I'intr^pidit^
que donne le fanatisme politique et reprirent huit fois I'important village de
Wattignies situ^ iL quelques lieues de Ik. Mats Ufaut le dire la ville dut encore
plus ea diUvrance h Vinexplicdble retraiie du prince de Coburg, qui leva le hlocue
et repana la Sambre au moment ot^ eon armie prite h Hre re^foreh par celle
du due de York pqiwoU compter eur une vietoire eov^lete"

538 FIFTH PBRJOP. — BBOOND DIVISION. [CH» lU

both parties should have been active in the field* The duke
of Brunswick lay with 4O5OOO men on the Queich^ but Wurmser
could never obtain either assistance or support from him to
enable him to prosecute his undertakings in the Vosges : all was
at rest Prussia oomplained of the emperor ; the extravagance
and licentious conduct of the king had exhausted the treasuiy,
and he demanded money from Austria, instead of which the
cabinet of Vienna sent counts and princes to negotiate in the
Prussian head-quarters. The prince of Waldeck^ count Lefar-
bach and count Ferraris^ vice-president of the notorious council
of war in Vienna^ appeared one after another; the duke of
Brunswick however remained inactive till the French defeated
the Austrians and began to threaten the Prussians. The French
bad surprised the Austrian general Piaczewitz, and the duke was
therefore obliged to break up his quarters and to inarch to meet
the enemy : on the 14th of September he fell in with an army
of 1 2,000 men at Pirmasens, which he completely defeated. This
victory however was followed by no useful resuUs, for about this
time tiie king of Prussia not only sent a great number of troops
from the Rhine to Mollendorf in Poland^ but he himself left the
army and went thither.

After the king's departure, the command devolved upon the
duke and count Kalkreuth ; both however were of opinion that
there was more to be gained for Prussia from the friendship of
the French than from that of the Austrians, and every pro*
damation which they issued gave indications of their determina-
tion to make conquests on their own account. Count Kalkreuth
moreover may have been a good general, as he was continually
with prince Henry during the seven years' war, and &me had
whispered in his ear that most of the deeds for which the former
obtained credit were really to be ascribed to him i he was, how*
ever, indisputably as supple a courtier as the duke himself.
When therefore lord Yarmouth, in the name of the English,
arrived at head-quarters, in order to prevail upon the Prussians
to support WiuTnser in his attacks upon the lines of Weis-
senburg, and when the king gave orders to this effect before
his departure, both commanders acquiesced. The duke sup-
ported Wurmser, and held a conference with him. The lines
between Lauterburg and Weissenburg were successfully assaulted
on the 13th of October, and a part of Alsace immediately occu-
pied by Wurms^; but the duke had given him very weak and
hesitating support, as both he and Kalkreutii were far from well*

§ III.] XUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FBANCB. 5S9

disposed to the war. The duke agreed to a conference with
Wurmser, far less with a view of arranging any common plan of
operations than really of furthering his own designs and becoming
acquainted with Wurmser's intentions. The proclamation issued
by Wurmser, who was himself an Alsatian^ to his countrymen^
furnished the Prussians, who wished to cause a rupture between
the king and the emperor^ with the very best means of eflfecting
their object. It is tme^ Wurmser merdy called upon the Alsa-
tians in general terms to form a union with Germany^ but it was
obvious enough that his intention was to imitate the conduct of
Coburg in Belgium.

In addition to this, a council of war held in Berlin had already
recommended the king to withdraw all his troops from the Rhine,
and to send them immediately to Poland, on account of the
dangerous condition of things in that country. The courts of
Vienna and London, in connexion with that of Petersburg, were
obliged to have recourse to all allowable and unallowable means
to retain the king in the alliance. As to the means employed,
we must confine ourselves to a few indications of their nature
and object. On his return from the army the king again sunk
into his former degradation ; countess lichtenau again put all
her wiles in action, and her obedient servant Haugwits ruled
the cabinet. Lucchesini was despatched with a most extraordi*
nary commission to Vienna,— to require a yearly subsidy of
30,000,000 of florins for the maintenance of tl^ licentious revels
in Berlin, as the condition upon which Prussia would continue to
form a member of the coalition ; and the cession of Austrian Si*
lesia was demanded as a pledge for the r^^ilar payment of the
money. This was evidence dear enough that Prussia was
weary of the war, and the duke of Brunswick acted in the spirit
of tUs feeling, although he had been expressly commanded by
the king to give no offence to the Austrians.

Two young French generals, Hoche and Pich^ru, opened
their splendid career at the head of those numerous hosts^
which the committee of public welfare had collected from all
quarters to drive Wurmser out of Alsace, and the Prussians to
tiie Rhine. In the course of the months of November and De*
cember, within forty days, there took place six and thirty col-
lisions between the armies on both sides. Hoche commenced
his attacks in November, and Pich^ru in December, the former
upon the Prussians, and the latter upon the Austrians. The
duke of Brunswick retired at the very moment when Wurmser

540 Titra pbbiod.— seconb division* [cu. ii.

had most need of his aid, — ^reaped, it is true, the fruitless glory of
a victory, but on the other hand gave up the Austrians to the
enemy. From the 26th till the 29th^ Hoche harassed the Prus^
sians by a series of constantly renewed attacks ; on the dOth the
Prussians proved victorious in the battle of Kaiserslautem^ in
which Kalkreuth was severely wounded^ and the French on
their side lost 3000 men. The duke was seriously reproached
for not having hurried to the aid of the Austrians immediately
after the battle, as they were most severely pressed by their as*
sailants at this very time, from the 1st till the 8th of December.

At this time Pichegru attacked Wurmser with renewed im-
petuosity within the lines of Weissenburg, till the aged war-
rior became conscious that he could not maintain his position
without the aid of the Prussians, and therefore applied to the
duke in order to induce him to form a junction with him. In
this case he would have acted on the offensive and attacked
Pichegru, instead of awaiting his attacks. On this occasion the
duke played the character of a diplomatist and not that of a
general. He hesitated, considered, and neither accepted nor re-
jected the proposal ; he was unable to come to any resolution^
appeared however ready to march on the 18th of December,
when he again put off his decision and acted twice subsequently
in the same manner, till the French adopted measures which
rendered Wurmser's plans altogether incapable of being carried
into efiect, which might easily have been done ten days pre-
viously. A junction had been formed between the armies of the
Saar and the Vosges, and Hoche appointed commander-in-chief
of both. This united force attacked the Pryssians and Austrians
at the same time along the whole lines, and kept up their assaults
from the 22nd till the 26th of December. The Austrian lines
were broken through; they were obliged to leave to the enemy,
the lines of Weissenburg, consisting of a chain of field-works
and redoubts which had been constructed by Vauban, and
complained loudly and publicly that they had been intention-
ally sacrificed by the duke. We do not venture to decide on
the justice of the complaint^ but it seems to us established
that the position within the lines was rendered untenable^ espe-*
cially by the conduct of the troops of the Bavarian palatinate^
which had been sent on the 22nd as auxiliaries to the Austrians,
but left their camp without awaiting any serious attack.

In consequence of these events, the Prussian and Austrian
commanders separated full of indignation against one another.

§ III.] EUROPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 541

The Ausirians evacuated the whole left bank of the Rhine, and
returned to the right one by Philippsburg and Mannheim. The
deputies from the convention who were with the army were too
well informed of all the intrigues which were carried on with the
Prussians, to foUow their army too hotly in its retreat to Worms.
As early as the 6th of January the duke of Brunswick demanded
his recall, and published a very remarkable paper for his justifi-
cation in taking this step. In this document the duke expresses
himself very strongly respecting the pitiful measures adopted by
the allies, both in the cabinet and in the field. He gives it to
be understood, that the allied powers, Mrith the limited means of
their antiquated monarchies and aristocracies, were in no con-
dition to make head against the colossal democratic energy of
the French. This is the real substance of the ducal declaration,
if not the actual words. The declaration however would be much
more surprising did we not know that they had long been weary
of the war in Berlin, and were by no means displeased that the
duke should have openly declared against it.

Haugwitz in the meantime prevented the duke from efiecting
what was, properly speaking, his intention, — ^to have his resigna-
tion refused, and still to be left at the head of the army. He
obtained leave to retire, but Mollendorf, who entertained the
same political views as the duke, came in his stead. The Prus-
sians were no longer willing to carry on a war at their own cost,
in which, as they thought, they were not concerned, although
the French were on the Rhine. If however the Prussian armies
were inactive, their diplomatists were the very reverse. They
travelled hither and thither to Berlin, Brussels and Vienna, and
Lucchesini, like a bird of ill-omen, was continually on the wing.
At length even Thugut, CoUoredo and Lacy, to whom the em-
peror Francis had given up the helm of the state, came to the
singular conclusion of proposing terms of peace to the dreadful
decemvirs of terror. The marquis Barth^lemy, who in the
following year conducted the negotiations for peace with Prussia,
because he was a man of the old times and belonging to the
ancient nobility, although at the same time republican ambassa-
dor in Switzerland, carried the Austrian proposals to the rulers
of France, who however were at that time totally disinclined to
enter upon the subject.

The English again helped the allies out of their difficulties by
money. The Bel^n estates were not so willing as tiie English

542 VIFTH PBRIOB. — BBCOND DIVISION. [CH. II«

pariiament to fiinrish money for brilmig princes and their mini-
sters^ but the count de Mercy Ai^nteau hoped to render them
better-disposed by the presence of the emperor^ who was to come
into the Netherlands for that purpose. Everything indicated
speedy destruction ; for whilst Camot was eager to let loose upon
Belgium the whole mass of the wariike Trench nation^ intoxi*
cated with victory and inspired with enthusiasm, the incapable
leaders of the hired mercenaries were engaged in holding con-
ferences and revels, and their diplomatists in drawing up the
details of plans suggested or hewn out by the duke of York and
general Mack. At the very moment when this terrific storm
was threatening to burst, the emperor himself came to Belgium,
and in the person of Mack, again brought with him the bird
which always portends shipwreck. Mack was appointed chief
of the general staff; he and the duke of York projected the plan
of the campaign, which in February 1794 was submitted for
consideration to a meeting composed of singular elements. la
addition to the two plan-makers, together with the prince of
Coburg, the hereditary prince of Orange, and Clairfait, there
were invited to the council a great number of subordinate gene-
rals, princes and counts, and the multitude of councillors as well
as their quality was in itself sufficient to give an ill'-omen to the
results of such a council of war. The two chiefs took a journey
to London with the plan so devised, in order to submit their
views to the English ministry, which it was first requisite to con-
sult, before proceeding to carry it into execution. The prince
regent and the English cabinet would have done well had thqr
left the whole affair to lord Comwallis, who had just returned
from India, and was called in to advise. The whole scheme was
based upon two suppositions assumed by Mack and the prince
of Coburg, which the duke of York took for granted ; — ^first,
that a great land force would be organized by the Germans ; and
secondly, that this force, in connexion with the troops of the
empire, which had no existence, would be in a condition to de-
fend the Rhine frontier, because it was their intention to order
MoUendorf to march to Treves and to employ his aid in their
undertakings in the Low Countries.

The plan was communicated to Mbllendorf, who was already
fully aware that Prussia was anxious to renounce the coalition ;
he therefore concealed hii refusal to march to Treves, under the
pretence that both Mack's suppositions were unfounded, and

§ III.} EUROPEAN COALITION A0AIN8T FBANGB. 54S

that it was imposaible for him to leave the Bhine^ in oonae*
quence of the danger which was threatening Majence^. The
danger to which M511endorf referred in his answer of the 4th of
March appeared so imminent to the elector of Majenoe^ that
he again fled to Aschaffenburg. There was so little reason to
calculate upon the display of an j German patriotism^ that in the
previous jear all the mercenaries, not only those of the landgrave
of Hesse Cassel and of the Hanoverian aristocracy, but also
those of Hesse Darmstadt and Baden, merely shed their blood
in return for English money, and were therefore employed pre-
cisely as the English pleased. Prussia at that time began to
play the game of enlarging her territories at the expense of the
Gterman nation, by means of her ruling minister Charles Au«
gustus von Hardenberg, by the acquisition of the principalities
of Anspach and Bayreuth; this game received its crowning
reward in the peace of Basle. Hardenberg during the months
of February and March intrigued at the same time with the
German princes and with three commissioners of the committee
of public welfare. The latter first came to Mayence on the 16th
of February, under the pretence of negotiating for an exchange
of prisoners, afterwards proceeded to meet Kalkreuth at Frank-
fort, who received the^i with every demonstration of honour^
and thus made it manifest to all Germany that Prussia had
changed her policy. These events were connected with the in-
fluence which Hardenberg had acquired in Berlin.

Charles Augustus von Hardenberg was in conduct and princi-

* The whole plan, which we shall not venture to criticise, as we confine
oureeWes wholly to the results, will be found, together with an opinion upon
it, in the ' Austrian Militarj Joumar for 1831, no, 4. pp. 3-18. It is how»
ever very obvious how much Uxe parties reckoned without their host in this affair«
from Uie following passage : " So far the plan of operations proceeds from Brus-
sels. On the part of Prassia sa one was invited to the conaaltation, becanst
it was undecided whether Prussia would withdraw its armies from the soens
of war or not. And it was not till the Eoglinh minister had given assurance
to baron Mack, who was sent from the head-quarters on a mission to London^
that they might rely with wwral certainty, not only on the remaining, but on
the increase of the Prussian armies, that the plans of operation were commu*
nicated to Mollendorf in Mayence on the 3rd of March, and a day later to
Brown, the commander of the army of the Upper Rhine ; but to both — mm^
9uck part9 08 effected thewueloet. It will not therefore be wondered at that
Mollendorf answered in the following terms on the 4th of March : — ^That he
was not aware of the share which the court of Berlin had in the plan commu*
nicated to himj but that the plan itself contained just ideas, which might be
carried into effect : that he himself in the present situation of affairs was
exposed to many inconveniences, and morewer by a march to TVeves would ev«
po8€ Majf9nc$ to the enmmf"

544 FIFTH PBBIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. IT.

pies a distinguished gentleman of the clever court circle of Louis
XV. and his contemporaries. This is no reproach^ as Kaunitz
also belonged to the same circle ; he did not however give oc-
casion to public scandals as Hardenberg did. Hardenberg was
first active in Brunswick, when the duke had given currency to
the principle that chastity was a virtue only obligatory on com-
mon people, and he was therefore very welcome at that time in
Berlin, and completely suited to the society and court of Fre-
derick William II. At the time in which Hardenbeig was re-
commended to the king of Prussia by the duke of Brunswick^
the former was already aware that the loose and extravagant
Christian Frederick Charles Alexander^ margrave of Anspach
and Bayreuth, might probably be induced to surrender his terri-
tories, even during his lifetime, to the king of Prussia, to whom
they would fall on his death, because he had no children bom
according to the legal conditions of the empire. The king
therefore had cogent reasons for bringing Hardenbeig into the
service of the margrave. The margrave, as was well-known in
his time, had acquired the same sort of celebrity by his subjec-
tion to Clairon, a French actress, whom amongst a number of
other ladies he honoured by his attentions, which Charles Theo-
dore, the elector of Mayence, the duke of Brunswick, the king
of Prussia and many other princes enjoyed. Hardenberg was
minister at the very time when Clairon, who had ruled the
court, country and people for seventeen years, was obliged to
make way for an English lady. This Englishwoman was Eliza-
beth Berkeley, then widow of lord Craven. She however could
only be won by marriage, and the children of their marriage
could only be properly provided for by an arrangement with
Prussia, which Hardenberg efiected to the satisfaction of both
parties. At the conferences respecting the cession of Anspach
and Bayreuth, there were no parties present with the king and the
margrave except Hardenberg and lady Craven. It was agreed
that the principalities should be surrendered to the king of
Prussia at the end of the year 1791, and as a compensation, the
margrave was to receive a large annuity fi-om the king.

The maigrave afterwards married lady Craven and went with
her to England; Hardenberg returned fi-om Berlin, where all
these arrangements had been made, was appointed IVussian
minister of state in Bayreuth, took possession of the provinces
by an edict dated the 25th of January 1792^ and remained to

§ ZII.} BUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FBANCB. 545

conduct the administration. In the beginning of 1794 he met
yon Schulenberg, then minister of war, on the Rhine, not to
devise means for defending this German river, but to prevent
their adoption. The emperor had at length submitted the pro-
posal of raising a regular imperial army, and the two Prussian
ministers went so far to prevent this scheme as to endeavour to
persuade the German courts through their intrigues, that it would
be much more advisable to subsidize a Prussian army for the de-
fence of the empire. These intrigues were closely connected
with the declaration which the king of Prussia caused to be
made through his ambassador to the prince of Coburg in Brus-
sels, that the king, of his whole army, would only leave his con*
tingent to the army of the empire, on the Rhine. The allies
knew however that Haugwitz and the countess Lichtenau, and
even the king himself, were to be had for money ; they therefore
instructed colonel Mack as early as February to reckon upon
Prussia, although the treaty was not concluded with Haugwitz
till the 19th of April. By virtue of this treaty, England and
Holland^ as it was expressed in courtly language, prombed a
subsidy, but properly speaking they hired a Prussian army for
their use. On the same day on which the bargain with Prussia
was closed, Holland and England came to an understanding as
to the sum which each was to contribute for the payment of the
subsidies.

Prussia received 300,000/. cash in hand ; at the end of the
war she was to receive 100,000/. more, and 50,000/. monthly
during its continuance ; on her part she stipulated to send an
army of 62,400 men wheresoever tiie allies chose to employ their
services. The English however in fact lost their money, for
MoUendorf persevered in the determination which he had com*
municated on the 4th of March, and when he gave any assist-
ance it came too late. The archduke Charles had, it is true, been
made commander of the artillery, but neither he nor Clairfait
possessed that influence which they ought to have had. Every-
thing was managed by Thugut and the imperial council of war
in Vienna, and when the emperor came to Belgium, he brought
Thugut, Colloredo, and Trautmannsdorf with him, and they, in
connexion with Coburg and Mack, who were not agreed, con-
sulted and intrigued much more than they acted. As long more-
over as three distinct French armies were opposed to the allies, the
latter were successful^ and even obtained some splendid victories i

VOL. VI. 2 N

546 FIFTH PBBIOD. — BEOONO DIVISION. [CH. II.

but they had no skill in quickly profiting by their advantages^
and afterwards were completely beaten by the masses of an
army united under one general^ which was let loose upon them.
The Austrian accounts estimate the united forces in tte Nether^
lands^ including the reserve under the hereditary prince of
Orange, which before the commencement of the campaign lay
between Huy and Maestricht and was 12,000 strong, at 160^000
men ; these troops extended from Ghent^ the head-quarters of
the duke of York, to Treves^ and had their centre at Yprea.
This vast force was opposed by three French armies, whose chief
and also subordinate generals we must mention, because they
have all become immortal in the history of military achieve^
mentfi*

Jourdan was between the Saar and tiie Moselle at the head of
the army of the Moselle. Between Philippeville and Charle-
mont, Charbonnier was commander of the army of Ardennea.
The army of the north, under Pichegru, extended from Givet to
Dunkirk. Pichegru, as younger in command^ afterwards served
under Jourdan, who for a time was commander-in-chief of the
whole. Under Pichegru served Moreau ; under Charb<mnier^
Kleber, Marceau and Marescot ; under Jourdan, Championnet.
The French profited by the winter to accustom the raw troops,
of which a great part of their army was composed, to some litde
military training, by employing them in petty engagements;
the commencement of the campaign was therefore favourable
to the allies. The number of their enemies however increased
every day, because the whole nation and all its means were put
in requisition against commanders such as Ck>bui^ and YcHrk,
who dreamt of opposing such generals as we have just named
with plans upon paper^ drawn up and devised by princes and
counts ! By the numerous consultations and despatches hither
and thither from the Austrians to the Prussians, and from the
Prussians to the Austrians, the opening of the campaign waa
delayed till the middle of April, and then it was commenced «s
cording to ancient usage by the siege of Landrecws* Hiis for*
tress was reduced to extremities^ when the French, on the 36th of
April, made an attack along the whole line from the frontiers of
Luxemburg to Flanders. On this occasion the duke of York
gsdned a splendid victory at Cateau and Catillon, took the leader
of the enemy prisoner, drove the French back to Camlnray) and
obtained thirty-seven pieces of cannon, "Hie Austrians in the

§ III.] BUBOPEAN COALITION AGAINST PRANCE. 547

centre also repulsed the French^ but the allies were threatened
with being outflanked on their extreme wings in West Flanders
and on the frontiers of Luxemburg.

Whilst Chapuis made his attack at Landrecies, the two ge-
nerals had been successful upon the extreme wings, Jourdan
against Beaulieu at Arlon, and Pichegru in West Flanders
against Clair&it. Menin was hard-pressed by Pichegru ; Clair-
fait was anxious to hasten to the relief of the city, but was de-
feated near Moescron on the 29th, not far from Courtray, at
the same time as Landrecies was taken by the allies. This for-
tress surrendered on the 30th, after having been almost laid in
ashes by a bo^ptbardment of fifty hours' duration. The French
having penetrated far into Flanders, the centre of the allies
was exposed to great danger, and the duke of York set out on
the SOth of April in great haste for Toumay, where he arrived
on the Srd of May; in the meantime Mack, Coburg, and
Thugut were unhappily active. The first insisted upon his
plan of marching dhrect to Paris, which however wholly de-
pended upon covering themselves in West Flanders by cutting
the dikes, and in Treves by means of Mollendorf 's IH-ussians ;
he therefore secured even the support of the emperor, who was
in West Flanders, in favour of his plans. On the other hand,
Coburg and Thugut intrigued for a different result, because they
then secretly thought what they afterwards openly said, that it
would be more politic to leave the defence of Belgium to the
English and Dutch, than to exhaust Austria for that purpose.

Camot was anxious to profit by the difference of opinions,
views and plans which existed among the allies, and the com-
mittee of public wel&re approved of his plan of suddenly rein-
fisrcing the army of the north, in order to separate the English
and Dutch from the Austrians. The victory which Souham and
Moreau gained on the 18th of May at Turcoing was the omen
of a successful issue for the French, whilst Pichegru had gone
to the right wing to devise measures for the junction of the
army of the north under his conmiand with the armies of Ar-
dennes and the Sambre. On this occasion the duke of York
was particularly unfortunate, for he was completely shut up,
lost his artillery (sixty-five pieces), and would have been taken
prisoner himself had he not been saved by the swiftness of his
horse and the protection of some hundred men belonging to the
reserve. The victory at Turcoing however contributed nothing

2n2

548 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

to decide the struggle^ for it soon became obvious that the affiur
must be determined on the Sambre^ because Flanders vfss lost,
as soon as the French were able to maintain themselves on the
Airther side of the Sambre and to take possession of Charleroi.
The whole attention of the allies therefore was directed to Char-
leroi ; Pichegru also continued to maintain his ground in Flan-
ders in the neighbourhood of Ypres^ although the allies had
taken a bloody revenge for the defeat which had been suffered
at Turcoing on the 22nd of May. Almost every week an en-
gagement of greater or less importance was fought in Flanders,
as well as attempts made to pass the Sambre ; the Austrians
fought like heroes and made large sacrifices in men. The French
received reinforcements almost daily, whilst the allies either
received none or to a very inconsiderable amount. The struggle
was carried on in Flanders in and around Ypres till the middle
of May, and Clairfait as well as Coburg were prevented fiom
marching to the Sambre, because the duke of York needed their
assistance in Flanders 5 it at length appeared that the main
body of the French was advancing upon Charleroi. The French
were driven back four times across the Sambre, — ^the fifth time
they maintained their ground and invested Charleroi. Whilst
the brave soldiers were thus fighting and shedding their blood,
and Clairfait was performing almost impossibilities, Coburg and
Thugut had come to the conclusion in the cabinet as early as
the 24th of May, that it would be more advantageous altogether
to evacuate the Low Countries.

This was the result of that notorious military and political
council of war which was held by Coburg and Thugut on the
24th of May in Toumay. The whole body there assembled ap-
proved of Coburg's and Thugut's opinion, that instead of making
new efforts for the maintenance of the Netherlands, it would be
much more advantageous to march into Poland, in order to
snatch from the Russians and Prussians a share of their booty.
This resolution was indeed kept very secret, and the English
and Dutch gave themselves unspeakable trouble to induce Mol-
lendorf to appear on the Sambre, when the whole stress of
the struggle was concentrated aroimd Charleroi ; but all who
were acquainted Mrith Thugut, concluded from the quick de-
parture of the emperor on the 9th of June, that it had been
determined to relinquish the Netherlands. In order to induce
the Prussians to do something for the money which they had

§ III.] EVROPBAN COALITION AOAIK8T FRANCE. 549

received, lord Malmesbury and the Dutch ambassador impor*
tuned Haugwitz, whom they met in Maestricht^ to issue com-
mands to this effect to MoUendorf. Haugwitz however declined,
bad recourse to one of his numerous diplomatic artifices and
went to Poland, whither his friend Lucchesini had already
preceded him. When the ambassadors applied to Hardenberg,
who still lingered on the Rhine, speculating upon a peace with
France, they obtained from him the fairest promises in Kirk-
heim-Polanden, where they met him, and afterwards in Mollen-
dorPs camp ; the afhir however ended by MoUendorf sending a
special messenger to the king in Poland, especially to ask his
opinion ; before the answer arrived, Belgium was occupied.

In the meantime Jourdan carried out what Camot had de-
signed. He united the army of the north with those of Ardennes
and the Sambre, as well as Mrith 15,000 men whom he had
caused to be sent from the army on the Rhine. The army of
the Rhine was at that time under the command of Michaud,
who had received express orders to limit himself for the present
to the defence of the fit>ntiers. Jourdan's army, when it passed
the Sambre in order to besiege Charleroi, is stated at 76,000
men, besides the 15,000 which remained under Scherer be-
tween Maubeuge and Thonin. About the time in which Jourdan
wished to make his main attack, things were in a very bad con-
dition in Flanders, and the duke of York was totally unwilling
to acquiesce in the prince of Coburg's marching to the Sam-
bre, because he alleged something must happen, and that the
chief object of his government should be the protection of
Holland. When the prince afterwards marched, he required
Clairfait, who was at Thiel, to advance into his positions, in
order that he himself might remain nearer to Holland. Such an
exchange could not be effected in the presence of the enemy,
and therefore remained unaccomplished ; it is easy to be seen
however from the demand, how necessary it was to have one
bold general, such as Clairfait, among a number of political ones,
such as the duk« of York, Coburg, Thugut and WaUis were.
Moreover, before Cobui^ left his position to march to the Sambre,
the fate of Flanders had been already decided. On the 1st of
June the French army had appeared at Ypres, and on the 5th
the siege of the city was commenced in due form ; the allies
were therefore obliged to attempt their utmost to save them-
selves, because the city of Ypres was no sooner in the hands of

550 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIYIBION. [CH« II.

the enemy than they were outflanked on the side towards the
sea. Clairfait made this attempt on the 13th of June^ but was
repulsed with loss by Moreau and Souham^ who then com-
manded under Pichegru^ and the town was compelled to sur-
render by capitulation on the 27th« By the terms of the capi-
tulation, the garrison, consisting of 6400 men, fell into the hands
of the French $ that howevet was a thing of inferior moment^
the chief advantage being, that at the same moment the allies
were outflanked on the west side towards the sea, when Jourdan
set the whole success of the game on outflanking them alao on
the east by Charleroi. By the conquest of Ypres the way was
opened for the French as far as Ostend, and at the other end
they maintained themselves in their fifth passage over the Sambre,
on the further side of the river, and invested Charleroi, which
was very imperfectly fortified.

Shortly before, on the day previous to the surrender of Ypres,
the allies had been successfiil in repulsing an attack made by
Jourdan, drove him back across the river on his fourth attempt
to nciake the passage, and compelled him to raise the siege of
Charleroi. The unsuccessful attack made by the French army
under Jourdan upon the allies, or the battle which was foug^ht
on the 16th, five hours firom Namur, is called the fitMi battle qf
FTeuruSf because a second was fought on the same ground ten
days afterwards. Jourdan was not in a condition at that time
to maintain himself on the further side of the river, and was
obliged to relinquish the siege of Charleroi, because, according
to the Austrians' accoimts in their military journal, he had lost
8000 men in the fourth passage of the river. Had not Cobuig
been detained at that time in the neighbourhood of the Scheldt^
as we have already stated, by the duke of York and his own
want of resolution, and had he immediately followed the French
across the Sambre, the issue would no doubt have been very dif-
ferent from what it afterwards really was. It was not till Jour-
dan passed the Sambre for the fifth time and pressed Charleroi
closely, that Coburg put his troops in motion.- On the 2l8t of
June, the Austrians and Dutch under Coburg separated firom
the duke of York and hastened to meet Jourdan, in order to offer
a decisive engagement; the prince however^ according to his
custom, delayed the attack till the 26th, when it was too late.

Every one at that time gave utterance to loud complaints re*
specting the ruinous political intrigues of the prince, Thugut,

§ III.] EUBOPBAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 551

and Wallis, president of the imperial council of war^ whose spe-
culations regarding Poland prevented a proper supply of rein*
foroementa and materials of war to the army under the brave
Clairfidt and the archduke Charles in Flanders. We shall not
attempt to follow any of these secret intrigues further than
reports are justified by well-known ficu^ts— and touch therefore
very slightly upon what was less certain^ dwelling only upon un«
deniable facts. Among these may be reckoned the fact, that the
attack upon the French pretended to be undertaken for the relief
of Charleroi was foolish, if the prince, as some say, previously
knew that Charleroi had fallen; at all events it was totally un-
justifiable, after he had made the attack, to make the report of
the fidl of Charleroi, as he allied, an excuse for ordering his
army to retreat, as is stated to have been really the case, ac-
cording to the Austrian accounts. The prince of Orange de«
dared that the second battle, fought on the 26th of June, in
which the French lost more men than the allies, was not lost ; the
prince of Coburg on the contrary, by his orders to retreat, gave
the French all the advantages of a victory. The French indeed
boast of a complete and splendid victory, which they ascribe less
to Jourdan than to Kleber and Bemadotte. If the retreat firom
the field of Fleurus was not the result of the conference held by
Coburg, Wallis and Thugut in:Toumay, the cowardly and unpa«
triotic care for the special intertsts of Austria was undoubtedly
the only reason for declining to .fight another decisive battle,
when the armies under Cobui^, Clairfait and York were still near
to one another; Coburg however ordered Clairfait to join the
forces under his command; neither tried to defend Flanders or
Brussels, left the English and Dutch to take care of themselves
as they best could, and marched from Brussels to Tirlemont in
order to take refuge behind the Ourthe. Pichegru continued to
press the duke of York and Clairfait, whilst Jourdan pursued
Coburg; the former took possession of Bruges and Ostend,
whilst Moreau besiegeii and reduced Nieuport and Sluys. From
Ghent Pichegru turned to Brussels, where he formed a junction
with Jourdan, and on the 11th of July the left wing of the
French army rested on Yilvorde, whilst the centre was at Brus-
sels and the right atNamur; on the I7th Pichegru was in
Antwerp, and Jourdan pressed forward into the bishopric of
Liege. At the end of July the prince of Coburg had retired
behind the Meuse> and had it depended wholly on him, he would

552 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH« lU

on this occasion have immediately evacuated Maestiicht. The
overthrow of the reigning triumvirate in France was connected
with all kinds of diplomatic negotiations, whose dark windings
we cannot here follow through all the labyrinths of intrigue into
which we should be obliged to venture if we wished to withdraw
the veil which conceals them. First of aU they effected a species
of truce till the month of September ; tlie French turned this
period of inactivity in the field to much better account than the
allies. During this interval they directed the whole of their
forces towards the fortresses of Landrecies, Quesnoy, Valen-
ciennes and Cond^, which were still in the hands of the allies ;
they next sent their troops to the frontiers and laid siege to
Luxemburg, whilst the allies employed the time in intrigues
and the Germans in consultations. In the reports contained in
the Austrian journals, it b really melancholy to read the account
of all that the German princes unshed and proposed to do, and
to find afterwards that they actually did nothing. The two points
of great importance to the allies were, to keep up their commu-
nications with the Rhine, and to maintain possession of the high
roads to Limburg and Luxembuiig, as well as a free mtercourse
with Holland. For these purposes they had special need of the
assistance of the army of Prussian mercenaries under MoUen^
dorf. Long negotiations had been carried on respecting the
maintenance of these troops as well as the raising and orga-
nizing of an imperial army ; the former of these points had given
rise to some threatening declarations on the part of the Prussian
general, and the second to a multitude of ordinances issued by
the German governments, all of which were mere waste paper.
The operations on the Rhine were first commenced in April,
for in the beginning of the year 17^9 Wurmser bad given up
the command to Browne, and he again to duke Albert of Saxe-
Teschen, whose military skill was of a very moderate descrip-
tion ; MoUendorf also very unwillingly lent his aid in securing
Austrian victories. The Austrians and Prussians however at
length advanced, when the French in May directed the whole
of their forces against the Netherlands ; on the 23rd MoUendorf
gained a victory at Kaiserslautern, and the enemy were driven
beyond the Queich. This was all that took place. From this
moment forward no attempts were made to advance, and the
allies acted wholly on the defensive till the French had accom-
plished their object. During this period of inaction some sharp

§ III.] BUttOPKAN COALITION AGAINST PRANCE. 55S

and angry correspondence took place between duke Albert and
Mollendorf. The former first moved his camp from 8chwet«
zingen to Spires on the 3rd of July^ and the latter at length
sent reinforcements to the entrenchments and field-works which
he had formed on the heights near the Saar and Nahe, whilst
Michaud again had his army on the Rhine reinforced till it
amounted to 60>000 men. Michaud was at that time assisted
by Dessaix^who was indisputably superior to all the generals of
the allies. During the whole month of June, the French were
allowed to pursue all their plans in the Netherlands undisturbed ;
34,000 Austrians and 50,000 Prussians were scattered through
the extensive lines which stretched from Spires to Treves, and
on the 20th of June, at a personal interview, lord Comwallis
endeavoured in vain to persuade Mollendorf to march to the
Netherlands. The filrst attack made by the French on these
extensive lines, on the 3rd of July, was attended by no splendid
results, but immediately afterwards duke Albert and Mollendorf
again fell into disputes, because the latter would not extend his
position as far as Neustadt in the Hardt. This was an evil
omen for the issue of the struggle, which the French renewed
by an attack on the whole lines on the ISth. Mollendorf was
at that time compelled to march to Kirkheim-Polanden ; duke
Albert had despatched all his baggage over the Rhine to Mann-
heim on the 13th, and he himself hastened to cross the river on
the 14th. He and his troops however returned to the left bank ;
for when the duke again reached his head-quarters in Schwet-
zingen, Mollendorf was attacked afiresh, and a grand council of
war summoned and held in his head-quarters. On the 26th of
July, the prince of Coburg, the duke of Saxe-Teschen, prince
Reuss and colonel von Oravert of the Prussian service idl met
in MollendorPs head-quarters, and agreed that the Austrians
should again occupy and maintain the left bank of the Rhine as
far as and beyond Mayence, and that count Ealkreuth with a
Prussian corps should take up a position between the Nahe
and Moselle in order to prevent the occupation of Treves.

It was said that E[alkreuth, who at that very time was co-
operating with Hardenberg to bring about a negotiation for
peace with the French, was rather well-pleased at a hint being
given to the French of their intention. It is true that the French
really received such a hint, and on the 9th of August antici-
pated the execution of the agreement by the occupation of

554 FIFTH PEBIOO. — SECOND DIVISION* [CH« IJ.

Treves $ we must however remark, to the honour of the Prussiaiis,
that they maintained an honourable reputation in a great number
of battles, and nobly kept their ground at Kaiserslautem and
Hundsriick, although Mollendorf had long threatened^ that if
his master's territories on the Lower Rhine were not defended, he
should be obliged to withdraw his army and hasten thither* Am
early as the 16th of September, the king of Prussia caused a note
to be delivered in Vienna, in which he announced his intenti<»i
of withdrawing his troops from the Rhine, because he had need of
their services in Poland; we shall see however that Mollendorf
did not cross the Rhine till the 2ath and 21st of October, when
there was nothing left to defend on the left bank of the river*

However useful we regard the practice of severely blaming
the faults of our best firiends and our country, which we ardently
love, in order to prove to them that we do not aim at wooing
their favour by insincerity and flattery, we prefer on this occa-
sion drawing a veil over the melandioly spectacle which Ger-
many at that time presented. Austria /m6ftc/y accused Prussia,
and Prussia accused Austria ; the diet complained, that although
the estates of the empire on the 4th of May and the 14th of
June had engaged for and undertaken the payment of the Prua-
sian contingent, the empire was neither defended by the Pros*
sians nor Austrians, whilst Prussia and Austria united in thro?dng
all the blame upon the estates of the empire. The Dutch se*
verely reproached both the emperor and the empire with having
done nothing for the money which they received, and Austria
threatened to leave the empire to its fate. The threat however
was happily averted by the English, who sent lord Spencer with
two millions of subsidies, which he promised for two years ; the
money was too attractive to Thugut, Wallis and others, not to
secure their best endeavours to induce the emperor to make the
boldest attempts. They were unwillingly obliged to give up
their prince of Coburg, who died in 1815, totally forgotten; on
the other hand, the English, or rather the duke of York, brought
back Mack, who had been previously sent away, although he held
no command. On the 10th of September Coburg resigned the
chief command of the army to Clairfait, and at the same time
Melas undertook the command of the Austrian corps between
the Nahe and Moselle. The Prussians still delayed on the
Rhine, and general Blucher had an important share in the
victory at Kaiserslautem, the consequence of which was^ that

§ III.] EUIIOPSAN COALITION AGAINST FRANCE. 555

the French were obliged to retreat to Pirmasens on the 20th of
September.

All the efforts of the combined Austrian and Prussian forces
on the Moselle and in the Palatinate were now however of little
advantage^ because the allies were separated from one another,
and Clairfait was unable to maintain himself either on the Meuse
or the Roer. Hostilities had been again commenced on the
Meuse and Scheldt in the beginning of September with re-
doubled vigour, and the English had been separated from the
Dutch since the 18th of September, because the duke of York,
hard-pressed by Pichegru, made a very unskilful retreat on the
Lower Meuse, and Herzogenbusch had been invested ever since
the 18th of September. At the same time as-Pichegru pushed
forward between the English and Dutch, Jourdan succeeded in
completely cutting off the communications between the Au-
strians and Dutch, and an auxiliary corps of Austrians alone
imder Alvinzy formed a weak lind of communication on the
Rhine* Jourdan's army was increased to 80,000 men ; on the
17th he drove the Austrians under Latour over the Ourthe, so
that by the loss of their position near Liege, the left wing of the
main army on the Meuse was exposed, and Clairfait was there-
fore obliged to retire behind that river* The French, now
superior in numbers, pushed forward with all that eagerness
and impetuosity which they always display in victory, and after
Jourdan had taken Aix la Chapelle, they reached Juliers on the
23nd, where they found Clairfait posted on the Roer. On the
2nd of October the Austrians were at the same time attacked
in all their positions at Aldenhoven, two hours from Juliers;
they however maintained their ground on most points, although
Jourdan was seconded by Bemadotte, Kleber, Championnet and
Marceau, so that Clairfait might have fought a second battle in
the following day. He did not however deem it advisable and
withdrew behind the Erft. Between the 5th and the 6th the
Austrians then crossed the Rhine, and the whole left bank of
that river, as far as Mayence, was given up to the enemy. On
the 6th of October Jourdan reached Cologne, and Coblentz as
early as the 26th. In the night between the 20th and 21st,
MoUendorf had crossed the Rhine. Melas continued to defend
Mayence against Kleber, who at first successfully invested it,
but even in December 1794 found he would be obliged to com-
mence a regular siege, and therefore gave bis troops some repose*

556 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

The defences of the Rhine at Mannheim were surrendered by
capitulation on the 24th of December^ after the town itself had
been seriously injured by a dreadful bombardment; Mayence
alone^ on the left bank of the Rhine^ remained in the hands of
the imperialists, whose armies were distributed from Mannheim
to Basle. There was still indeed a small imperial auxiliaiy corps
under Alviuzy with the Dutch ; it was however clearly foreseen,
that in case of a hard frost, which would prepare the way^ the
whole republic must necessarily become the prey of the French,
because all the fortresses which were considered impregnable
had been reduced in an incredibly short time. On the 7th of
October, Moreau took Herzogenbusch, and Pichegru Venloo on
the 26th. On the 4th of November, Kleber, Bemadotte and
Marescot reduced Maestricht ; on the 8th, Souham, who was
under Moreau, took possession of Nimeguen. As early as the
2nd of December the duke of York perceived that he could not
save Holland and took his departure for London, leaving Wall-
moden, who succeeded to the command^ to discover means (or
helping himself as he best could*

HISTORY OP THB YEARS 1795 — 1797-

a. HISTORY OF THB FRENCH CONVENTION FROM THE 27tH OF
JULY 1794 TILL ITS DISSOLUTION IN OCTOBER 1795.

We have already observed, that no immediate change of the
prevailing system could be effected by the overthrow of the tri-
umvirate, because such a change would have involved a judicial
inquiry against those who had been the most active in bringing
about the result, and the originators of the revolution of the 9th
Thermidor could not possibly accede to such a measure. Fouch^,
Tallien, Barr^re, Barras, Lecointre, Legendre, Vadier, Billaud
Varennes, CoUot d^Herbois and such men, who were called ther-
midorians, did not wish to leave the firuits of their victory to
others, but wished to reap them themselves ; they were however
prudent enough to see that the victories of the French armies
rendered a return to those principles absolutely necessary, which
might be abused or set at nought as long as the existence of the
republic was threatened. The majority of the deputies had

§ IV.] HI8TOBT OP THB OONVBNTION TII^L OCT. 1795. 557

never been favourable to ulixa-revolutioiiaiy measures^ but they
were unable to resist the energetic minority^ which was sup-
ported by the prevailing or rather universal public opinion^ as
far as opinion was expressed; public opinion now however un-^
derwent a complete change, and sound reason the more readily
again obtained the preponderance, as both the policy and advan-
tage of the republic demanded moderation.

The committees of public welfare and general safety were it is
true retained, but the one was limited to foreign afiairs and the
other to the high police ; and they were also deprived of the
right of causing a deputy to the convention to be arrested. In
addition to this, both committees had at least partly been re«
newed, and it was immediately decreed that fowr new members
should be nominated every month to replace those who were to
retire, and who were not to be re-eligible*. At first the revo-
lutionary tribunal and even Fouquier Tinville were also retained,
and the jacobin dub, which had been forcibly closed by Legendre
on the 9th Thermidor, was again afterwards opened with his
assent. It now required great skill, artifice and revolutionary
tactics to withdraw the remnant of the cordeliers, of whom the
thermidorians consisted, from the hands of the government.
We shall take but a very cursory notice of the struggle, which
occupied all minds in Paris after the 9th Thermidor, although
the subject is generally speaking and with propriety treated in
great detail by French writers j it possesses however less interest
for Europe than for the French, inasmuch as it was a struggle
for vengeance and retaliation among individuals, rather than a
contest of parties or a dispute concerning principles and opi-
nions. We may observe in general, that those called thermido-
rians were equally hated by the higher classes and the masses
of the people, wldch had hitherto ruled; they therefore eagerly
sought for support from whatever quarter it might be derived.
Fr^ron now found it advisable in his journal to rouse the pas-
sions of those whom he had hitherto persecuted as aristocrats
against those who had hitherto played the part of the sovereign
people. From 1788 he had contrived to collect around him the
grown-up sons of the ladies and gentlemen of the salons and be-
came their organ. These young people, with powdered hair,

• See Fantin Desodoaid's 'Histoire Philosophiqae/ vol. v. pp. 417—424,
which contains a "Tableau des membres de la convention nationale, qui out
compost 169 oomitft de salut public et de siiiet^ gdndrale."

558 FIFTH PBBIOD.— 8BOOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

high cravats and Bticks^ were called FriSron^s gilded youth (la
jeunesse dor^e), or^ on account of their cravats, muscadim ; under
his orders they frequented the Palais Royal, seized the jaoobins
in the streets and squares, opposed to their fists the fiishionable
sticks which they carried in their hands, and to their Marseillaise
the song of the people's awaking and of their revenge'^. The
government, which had been previously concentrated in the two
committees, was now again divided into sixteen committees, and
before the end of the year a termination was put to the mischio-
vous influence of the jacobin club, and the place of their meeting
definitively dosed. This step led to a desperate stru^e be-
tween the enemies and friends of the jacobins, and the thermi-
dorians were again obliged to admit their bitterest enemies, the
remnant of the girondists, into the convention, if they did not
wish to submit to the power and influence of those who were
obliged to defend the cause of the jacobins in order to save their
own lives. Notwithstanding all the apparent confusion and
anarchy of the times, a system was still carried on, whose ten-
dency was to abolish the ochlocracy without materially injuring
democracy. Inasmuch as there would have been great reason
to fear the overthrow of the new edifice, which was good in itself
and free from the dangerous and corrupt elements of a destruc-
tive hierarchy, priestcraft, and seigneurial privileges and immu-
nities, if the sovereign people and the revolutionaiy tribunal were
wholly deprived of influence and efficacy, some changes only were
eflfected in both. For the same reason, the revolutionary com-
mittees of the communes were not completely abolished, but the
number of their meetings was limited and the times for their
assembling specially determined. The sectional assemblies also,
which formed the main stays and instruments of the Mountain,
were limited to one in every decade, and as early as the.21st of
August a decree was passed, that the citizens who attended these
assemblies should no longer receive allowances from the public
treasury ; that is, they ceased to give premiums for attendance.
From this time f<Mward, the poor and destitute had no longer

* One stanza of the * B^^il da People ' may serve as a specimen :-^
'' Manes plaintifs de I'innooence
Apaisez-vous dans tos tombeaux ;
Le jour tardif de la vengeance
Fait enfin pftlir vos bourreaux."
The whole may be seen in Wachsmuth, part 3. pp. 37S, 379«

§ IV.] HISTOBT OF THB CONVBNTION TII^I. OCT. 1795. 569

any reaaon for persecuting and oppreBsing every well^lrefised
person, as they had had befote* One measure after another, which
had been adopted during the reign of terror, was ameliorated,
and ahnoet eveiy week the struggle in the convention became
more and more violent, because renewed attempts were made to
bring one or other of the terrorists to the bar of justice and to
retribution ; unhappily however the men and women of the sa-
lons at this period again regained their influence. Two of these
salons represented the antagonists' parties, the old and the new
r^TMie, the former of which was frequented by Lacretelle and
those Uke^ninded, and the latter by the terrorists, their friends
and allies.

Devaines, a friend of Tuigot and of the financiers of the old
times, received company and opened his salons, over which his
wife presided ; together with men who were decided royalists,
such as Suard, Morellet, Boissy d'Anglas, Sim^n, Menou and
Bourgoing; these assemblies were frequented by Thibaudeau
and Maret; and Talleyrand also, although his head-quarters
were at madame de Stall's, was not unfrequently at their meet-
ings, as well as other men of his dass, who wished to learn how
it would be advisable to set their sails*. In the salon of ma*-
dame Tallien, formeriy Fontenay-Cabamis, who could then use
her husband, because he had some political importance, although
she afterwards threw him away like a sucked orange, Tallien
called together his old acquaintances tlie terrorists, and among
the rest Barras ; these men were here introduced to the society
of ladies of education and address. At these assemblies Barras
firsts and then Bucmaparte, made the acquaintance of Josephine,
the widow of general Alexander Beauhamais, whose husband
had been the champion and became the sacrifice of the republic.
At that time also madame Recamier, so celebrated for her beauty,
the wife of the banker of that name, was at the very summit of
her glory. She was a respectable woman, although the author,
who be^une acquainted with her in 1834, and found Chateau^
briand almost inseparable from her society, saw nothing to ad-

« '' Nods passions/' says ll&ibaudean, i. p. 137, "la plupait de not soir^
chez luu Le g^^rai Menou, ramiral Truguet, le baron de Stael» Signeul con*
sul-gen^nd de Su^de, Maret, Bourgoing, te g^n^nd Faucher formaient le fond
habitael de la societ^. II avait austi dcM pemmnages diplomatique$, qwlqum
depute* et det homme* de Vancien regime, TaUegrand, quand ilfut de retovr de»
Etaig'UiUi, sou ami Sainte Foix et auiree iudividua de cette clique, gem du
(on ton et de la meilleure compagnie, qui expkiiaient la revohUiom t leurpr^,*^

560 FIFTH PERIOD.*— 6BOOND DIVISION* [OH« II.

mire in the powers of her mind ; she also informed him, that
professor Cans of Berlin had read essays and lectures on Hegel's
philosophy in her salons. She united around her a number of
persons who did not decisively belong to any particular partjr^
and on the whole she was always of the same opinion as her
friend madame de Stael. This lady was also the head of a coterie
which was frequented by Talleyrand^ after his friends had pro-
cured the repeal of the act of outlawry passed against him and
he was permitted to return to Paris^ as well as by all those Feuil-
lants of 1791> who looked upon freedom and the prosperity of
the people merely as a means^ but not an end. On the 16th of
October^ the members of this salon^ who were of course hostile
to the jacobins^ succeeded in completely breaking their power.
A decree was passed^ that as a preliminary to the definitive close
of the parent club in Paris, it should be debarred from all inter-
course and community with other dubs and deprived of its whole
revolutionaiy organization*.

Fr^n, Tallien and their companions afterwards resorted to
the use of the same arts against the jacobins which the latter
had previously employed against the convention. The mMtsca--
dinSf who were distinguished by their powdered tresses and high
cravats, mixed amongst the hired and resolute feUows, abused
and seized every jacobin with whom they met in the gardens of
the Tuileries or in the Palais Royal. The assembling place of
the club was beset by them, and the convention was speedily
reduced to the greatest perplexity to determine, whether, in this
persecution of these reckless and savage murderers, they should
give ear to prudence or justice ; for the afiair affected the whole
of the deputies in the convention f. There were three deputies
who had especially drawn down upon themselves the public in-
dignation, on account of their conduct during the reign of ter-
ror; these were. Carrier, for his barbarous cruelties ii^i Nantes;

* In the decree of the 1 6th of October 1 794, there was forbidden as *' snbTer-
sWes du gouvemement et contraires k VtuM de la r^publiqne, toutea affi-
liations, federations, correspondances en nom collectif, entre soci^t^, sons
quelqnes denominations que ces soddt^ existent/'

t Thibaudeau, who at this time played a conspicuous part, says with jus-
tice, '* La position de la convention ^tait extrdmement difficile. Si elle refu-
sait de poursuivre les terroristesi elle semblait s'associer k leurs crimes et se
perdait dans Topinion publique qui les atoit en horreur. Si elle leur faisoit
feur proems, elle devait s'attendre k ce que les accus^ lui r^pondissent, qu'ils
n'avoient agi que d'apr^ les ordres du comity de salut public, qu'Us lui avoioit
rendu compte de toutes leurs operations, qu'elle les avoit approuv^es fonnelle-
meat ou par son silence.'*

§ IV.] HISTORY OP THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 561

Maignet, on account of the murders perpetrated in Orange^ and
Lebon in Arras. The first of these men had provoked a universal
feeling of abhorrence against himself by \<rhat he called his re-
publican marriages, drowning human beings tied together in the
Loire, and by his noyades and fimUadeSj drowning the people
by boat-loads and shooting them en masse ; and the two others
by the mad and fanatical persecutions with which they pursued
and slaughtered all the enemies of their opinions ; every one
therefore insisted upon their punishment. But what was now
the course of Tallien, Fouch^, Barras, Pr^ron and others, whose
fanaticism was merely regulated by a larger measure of under-
standing ? In answer to this natural inquiry, every one must
be astonished to hear that these were the very men who tried, by
means of the gilded youth, to compel their colleagues in the
convention to consent to the condemnation of the men whose
names we have mentioned. In November the convention was
well-disposed to favour the reaction ; but Barr^re, Billaud Va-
rennes, and Collot d^Herbois, the friends and colleagues of the
fallen triumvirate, used every possible means to save the accused
and to uphold the power of the jacobins. They roused their
old fiiends in the faubourgs to assist the clubists in their con-
tinual encounters in the rue St. Honor^, and at the entrance to
the club with the hired sticks of the muscadins. Three other
deputies, who were at the same time members of the jacobin
club, viz. Monestier and Gray vemon, both ecclesiastics, and Du-
hem a physician, also strained every nerve to rouse and en-
courage their companions ; their time however was past. The
consequence was a civil war upon a small scale, in which the
convention and the committees, as far as possible, remained neu-
tral. On the 9th of November, the gilded youth and their
helper's helpers gained a regular victory. The besieged club was
stormed, its assembled members maltreated, the women and
children beaten with rods and the men with sticks, so that the
four committees of war, legislation, public welfare and general
safety were compelled to assemble in consequence of the tumult
and to send a public force to protect the jacobins. The enraged
jacobins armed themselves to have their revenge, and on the
11th there was again a regular engagement with sticks and
clubs, in which both parties made prisoners, as if it had been a
serious war.
The committees, which could easily have prevented all this, had

VOL. VI. 2 o

562 FIFTH PERIOD.— ^SECOND DIVISION. [CH« IX.

waited till things proceeded to such a length in order to have a
legitimate excuse for putting an end to the club, which had now
become useless. The four united committees therefore adopted
a resolution to shut up the chamber of the jacobins and to bring
away the keys. These measures were necessarily only provi-
sional, but the convention confirmed them on the 13th : on this
point it deserves to be particularly remarked, that B^ubel and
Bourdon de POise were the persons who succeeded* in having
that club finally shut up, out of whose bosom they themaelves
had sprung. The club was first closed for ever on the 24th of
January 1795» <^d the hall in which it had been accustomed to
hold its sittings appropriated for a normal school; on the l7th
of May the whole convent was raased, and the place converted
into a market. The committee of legislation had fiK>m Sep-
tember been industriously employed on a new constitution, in
order again to separate government and legislation ; on the 2nd
of December the convention also recalled the cruel resolutions
which they had passed against those of the royalists who still
remained in La Vendue and Brittany, and caused an amnesty to
be proclaimed in favour of all those in the insurrectionary di-
stricts, extending from Brest to Cherbourg, who should lay down
their arms. This step in favour of the royalists was followed by
another in favour of the seven ty^three deputies who had been
arrested and accused, but never summoned before the court, on
account of their protest against the resolutions of the 2od of
June 179^9 because Robespierre intentionally spared them.
These persons were not only acquitted and set at liberty on the
8th of December, but again received into the convention, where
they immediately pressed for the recall of their Mends, those
girondists who it is true had been outlawed, but happily escaped
the guillotine. This could not be accomplished widiout a long
and difficult stru^Ie. On the 9th of March 1795, Lanjuinais,
Isnard, Louvet, Henry Larivi^re, Doulcet, Lareveill^re-L6peaux
and some others, were again allowed to take their places at the
sittings; but there were numerous exceptions of persons who
had fled from the country. Their case came afterwards to be
considered.

^ Reubel obeervet of the event, " Qui reyrette le regime afireox, aons
lequel nous avons v^cu ? les jacobins. Si vous n'avez pas le courage de tous
proDoncer en ce moment, vous n'avez plus de republique, parceque vous avez
des jacobiDs."

§ IV*] HI8T0BT OF THE OONVANTION TILL OOT. l795. 56S

From this moment all the firiends of Robespierre and Danton
began to feel serious apprehensions, and the demagogues of the
preceding years again began to agitate and excite the masses in
the capital. Carrier, Joseph Lebon and Maignet had at length
been subjected to merited punishment. The restoration of the
outlawed republican deputies on the 9th of March 1795 was
especially the result of the need of their services which was felt,
in order to be able in a stormy manner to maintain and carry
through the accusations against the deputies Barr^re, Vadier,
Billaud Varennes and Collot d'Herbois. All reasonable per-
sons again entertained serious fears on the one hand respecting
the newly^awakened tumult of the populace, who began tumul-
tuously and threateningly to demand the constitution of I79dj
that Ib, the renewal of anarchy, in the same manner as they had
demanded the dethronement of the king; and on the other, re-
garding the wickedness of the men who sought to profit by the
disturbances and fear of the anarchists, in order to overthrow
every innovation. The violence of party spirit displayed itself
in the same way as it had done in the case of the busts of Marat and
Liepelletier. They were not satisfied with quietly removing them
from the hall of the convention and the Pantheon, but they dragged
them through the mud and threw them into the common sewer*

The chief step towards the annihilation of the dominion of the
populace, which for four years had its cebtre in the common-coun-
cil of Paris, was taken on the 21st of February 1795, by dividing
the great republic of Pbris and diminishing the more than kingly
influence of the mayor. By a decree of the 12th of February,
Paris was divided into twelve municipalities, so that fi*om this time
forward twelve mayors and as many councils watched over and
administered the public interests in the capital, not as a whole^
but as twelve distinct districts. Notwithstanding this, the old
fanaticism in favour of fireedom was awakened anew throughout
the whole city on the prosecution of the four deputies, among a
part of the citizens and a considerable number of the deputies, in
consequence of the progress of the labour on the new constitution
and the open efibrts of the friends of the old rSgime to destroy all
innovations and those who were the authors of them. The influ-
ence of the four accused deputies had the effect of again suggest-
ing the idea of terrifying the convention by means of the people,
and compelling them to pass decrees. The question on this oc-
casion did not affect monsters in human form, who might be

2o2

564 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BC0NB BIVI810N* [CH. II«

accused as evil-doers^ but political offenders^ who had merely
offended as members of the committee of public welfare, or as
deputies of the convention, and acting on their commission.

Those who wish to examine more particularly the events of
the time will find them very minutely recorded in Thibaudeau,
who was at that moment president of the convention, and who
gives an account of the nature of the petitions and the characters
of the people, calling themselves confederates or men of 17^3^
who importuned and harassed the convention, and of the man-
ner in which they boxed and fought with the muscadins in the
gardens of the Tuileries. Thibaudeau is the best evidence as to
the first, but Beaulieu, who was present at the scenes enacted^
gives a more minute description of the second. The real object
of these disturbance3 was to obstruct the accusation and trial of
the four deputies, which was entrusted to a commission ; but
the leaders of them availed themselves of the dearth of provisions
and deficient supplies under which the capital was suffering, as
they had done in March 17^3, and in Germinal, Floreal and
Prairial (from the 21st of March till the 18th of June 1795) of
the third year of the republic. The causes of the commotion
have been very well stated by Thiers *. The women, the fau-
bourgers and idle people of all kinds were roused to act in favour
of the jacobins in the convention by the apprehension of dearth
and want. The tumults and riots therefore daily increased, and the
cry of Bread and the constitution of 1 793, as well as the clamour
against the aristocracy of the convention, became continually
louder in March 1795, till at length it led to a serious and deci-
sive tumult on the 21st of that month (the 1st of Germinal). The
allies and friends of the accused terrorists divided themselves into
two parties ; the one, consisting of the great mass of the people,
women, and mobs of all kinds^ proceeded to the Tuileries in order
to compel the convention to adopt such measures as the jacobins
desired ; the other, consisting of a number of stout apprentices
and journeymen, went to the Palais Royal, maltreated the young
gentlemen with powdered locks and high cravats, and even threw
some of them into the water. The gilded youth at first fled;
but having been reinforced, returned and conquered, and arrived
at the Tuileries just in time to assist the convention, which was
almost overpowered by the masses who presented the petition
and shouted for the constitution of 1793. The committee of
* Hist, de la R^v. Fran9. vol. vii. pp. 237 — 244.

§ ly.] HISTORY OF THB CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1^95. 565

general safety had already reinforced the young men advancing
in triumph with a number of persons who volunteered their aid,
and others who were called on for the protection of the conven-
tion. The promiscuous mass of assailants was speedily dis*
sipated and the convention set at liberty*.

Advantage was taken of this unsuccessful tumult, as has been
done of all imeutes in France since 1830, to carry out plans and
to pass ordinances of which no one would have previously ven-
tured to think. Si^y^s, who had remained profoundly silent as
long as there was any danger in speaking, now again opened his
mouth ; and he was the man who, on the 2nd, proposed a re*
newal of martial law, which had been abolished, but in an altered
and severer form. By this law of the high police, as it was called^
all tumultuary petitioning for the constitution of 17^3 was made
a criminal offence, and directions were also given as to the means
to be employed for dispersing such riotous assemblies by force*
In order to frustrate all attempts at scattering the convention by
force and to prevent acts of violence against the deputies, their
persons were declared to be inviolable ; and a decree was passed,
that in case the convention in Paris should be forcibly ob*-
structed in the exercise of its functions, a new convention, to be
elected according to forms therein prescribed, should be elected
and assemble in Chalons, and at the head of the troops march
against Paris. As it was well known that the four terrorists
and their old friends had excited the tumult of the 1st of Ger-
minal, the commission which had been appointed to examine and

* Beaulieu, vol. vi. pp. 135, 136, gives the following account of the events
of the Ist of Grerminal : " Les jacobins pour empdcher le r^sultat de Taccusa-
tion de Barr^re et de sea complices, essay^rent nne insurrection. £Ue com-
men9a par une attaque coutre les jeunes gens, dont quelques-uns furent jetds
dans le bassin des Tuileries. On se battit k coups de Cannes au Palais Royal^
et la victoire parut pencher un moment pour les jacobins, mais il arriva du se-
cours aux jeunes gens ; elle se d^cida pour eux, les jacobins prirent la fnite.
Du Palais Royal les vainqueurs se port^rent aux Tuileries en chantant le R^-
veil du peuple ; 1^, les jacobins ^taient mattres du terrain ; c'est k dire, qu'ils
ponvaient bonleverser la convention sans ^prouver de resistance, si ce n'est
peut-dtre de quelques-uns de ees membres. Sa garde laissa faire et paraissait
d^cid^e k rester passive au milieu du d^sordre ; j'ai 4t^ t^moin de toute cette
sc^ne, et je puis le certifier. Le lieu des stances pouvait 6tre k cheque instant
forc^, il sumsait que quelques hommes audacieux en fissent la proposition ;
mais lorsque la troupe partie du Palais Royal arriva, les clioses changerent de
face ; les chefs du rassemblement furent vigoureusement assaillis ; la populace
qu'ils avaient ameut^e se dispersa ; ainsi une centaine de personnes au plus«
qui presque toutes avaient ete victimes de la tyrannic conventionnelle, la deli-
vr^rent une premiere fois de la fureur de ceux qui nagu^re ^talent ses exclusifs
soutiens et les aveugles ex^teurs de ses volont^s."

666 FIFTH PERIOD^ — BBOOND DIVISION. [OH. 11,

report upon their case^ and which had now remained inactive
jfor two months, were called upon to make their report. In con-
sequence of this report, Barr^re, Collot d^Herbois, Billaud Va-
rennes and Yadier were summoned as criminals to the bar of the
assembly on the 3rd of Germinal (March 23rd). The conven-
tion became immediately divided into two parties respecting the
charges alleged against the accused, because the most distin-
guished members, whose influence and partisans were powerful,
stood forward as their defenders. Prieur, Camot and Robert
Lindet solemnly declared, that they must confess themselves
equally guilty of everything which was charged against their col-
leagues as former members of the committee of public welfiire.

During this trial, Paris again exhibited the same spectacle
which it had presented from March till June 17^3, and on the
last five days of the month jbhe city was in a state of rebeUion.
.Two of these days were more remarkable than the others, the
11th and 12th of Germinal, or the dlst of March and the Ist of
April 1795. On the 31st a multitude of women, inhabitants of
the faubourgs, the whole of Marafs former army, proceeded to
the hall of the convention, and amidst shouts and clamour from
without, regularly invested the assembly, whilst Robespierre's
band, the whole remnant of the dreadful Mountain, united their
violence with the tumultuary shouts of the savage masses with-
out, who forced their way into the assembly, and with dreadfol
threats demanded the liberation of the patriots, bread, and the
constitution of 1793. Pelet de la Loz^re (the father), who wbs
then president, courageously refused to comply with the de-
mand; the originators of the tumult however did not suffer
themselves to be deterred, but as early as noon on the 31st,
they had adopted all the necessary measures to be able to orga-
nize a genersd insurrection on the Ist of April.

Early on the morning of the 1st the whole populace of the
capital assembled and completely filled the streets, as they are
accustomed to do on some grand festival, forming a promiscuous
crowd of men and women even with children in their arms.
Women, children, and a mob of all kinds from the fauboui^ of
the Temple, St. Marceau and St. Antoiae, proceeded in dense
masses towards the convention. Their watchwords were : Bread,
the Constitution of 1793, Liberation of the Patriots. After mid-
day they began to be ready for murder and violence, and about
two o'clock the doors of the convention-chamber were violently

§ IV.] HISTORY OF THR CONVENTION TIIiL OCT. l795. 567

burst open and the clamorous rabble filled the ball. The sar
vage people maintained themselves in possession for four hours
afterwards, so that, according to Thibaudeau^s report*, he and
Si^y^s were of opinion that the deputies of the Mountain had
completely succeeded in their object and the anarchists been
victorious. It was fortunate that the noise and confusion in the
hall were so great as to prevent Amar, Huguet, Duhem, Leonard
Bourdon, Cambon, Ruamps and other deputies belonging to the
terrorists from making themselves heard, or being able as they
wished to have their revolutionary proposals quickly passed into
the form of decrees, and that Pichegru, as well as many officers
and soldiers of the army absent on leave, were at that time ac-
cidentally in Paris.

The members of the committees of government had in the
meantime proceeded to various parts of the city, summoned the
citizens of those sections chiefly inhabited by wealthy persons
to the relief of the convention, and formed them into battalions.
The committees had even authorized Pichegru to collect the
officers and soldiers of the army, and to adopt military measures
to repress the disturbances ; they rung the alarm*bell in the pa-
vilion of Unity, as the pavilion of Flora was then called, and
caused the drums to beat to arms through the whole city; and
the convention itself proceeded to name military commanders as
had been done on the decisive night of the 9th of Thermidor.
Barras, Auguis, Delmas, Gossuin and Peni^res were again in-

* Tbibaudeau* 'M^moires,' toL i. (Convention) pp. 152« 153: "Eneffet
le 12 Germinal un attroupement, compost pour la plus grande partie de
femmes, investit toutes les avenues de la salle et y fit irruption en demandant
k gprands cri« du pain, la conMuium de 1793, la liberii de$ patriotes, Ces
cris furent encourages et appuyes par la montage. Les autres repr^sentans
volurent en vain ramener Tordre, leur voix fut couverte par les vociferations,
lears places furent envahies, ils furent assaillis d'impr^cations et de menaces,
U confusion et le tumulte furent tela, que ies s^itieux eux-mdmes ne pouvaient
ni parler ni s'entendre. Ce d^sordre dura quatre heures. Epuis^ par une
hitte inutile, et T&me accabl^ par ce tableau deplorable, ie sortis dans le jar*
din, laissant an hasard le denouement d'une cataetropbe on la meilleure Tolont^
etoit devenue impuissante. Je rencontrai I'abbe Si^yes, et nous nous livrdmea
ensembles aux plus sombres reflections. L'exc^ du mal en foumit le remade.
La convention etant dissoute de fait par Tenvahissement du lien de ses stances
et les montagnards se trouvant en petit nombre, ils manqo^ent d'audace et
n'os^rent d^lib^rer. Fatigues de Tinutilite de ieurs propres exc^, les s^ditieux
s'^coul^rent pen h, peu et abaodonn^rent le champ de bataille. La convention
reprit sa stance. Ysabeaa, au nom du comite de Btireti gen^rale, propoea le
d^et suivant : La convention nationale declare au peuple Fran9ais qu'il y a eu
aujourdliui attentat contre la liberte de ses deliberations, et que les auteurs de
cet attentat seront traduits an tribunal criminel de Paris/'

568 FIFTH PERIOD* — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. It.

vested with the full powers of deputies of the convention sent
to the armiesj and decorated with the plumes of military com-
missioners, rode through the streets of the city. They delivered
addresses to the various battalions of organized citizens, prepared
and issued order upon order, and about six o'clock met with the
battalions of the sections at the Tuileries, at the same time as
Fr^ron also with his baud of gilded youths and their assistants
appeared upon the terrace.

The military force succeeded, the rabble was scattered, the
convention set at liberty and the hall cleared ; the city howevCT
was still disturbed, and the poor in arms against the rich. The
convention had recourse to energetic measures ; it sentenced the
four accused deputies to deportation, caused a number of persons
to be arrested, but on the following day was nevertheless obliged
to have recourse to Pichegru, in order again to restore order by
military measures. Pichegru having occupied the Seven United
Provinces, as we shall subsequently relate, had resigned the com-
mand of the army of the north to Moreau and was now on his way
to join the army of the Rhine, to the command of which he was
appointed, where he was purchased for the cause of the Bourbons
through the instrumentality of Fauche Borel, a bookseller in
Neufch&tel, who has given us a very detailed account of the afiair
in his memoirs. For this purpose Borel brought him into com-
munication with the prince de Cond^ ; at this moment however
he was the deliverer of the convention. On the morning of the
13th of Germinal (2nd of April) he was appointed general com-
mandant of all the military forces then in Paris, and Barras and
Merlin du Thionville (who had assisted in the defence of Ma-
yence) were placed under his orders : this command however was
limited to the moment of danger, because what really happened
was anticipated, that the disturbances were likely to be renewed
on the following day. When the four terrorists sentenced to de-
portation were about to be conveyed away from Paris, whole
sections of the city flew to arms in order to prevent the execu-
tion of the sentence. A collision took place between the people
and the troops; a fellow with a gun took aim at Pichegru, and
Rosset, who commanded one of the battalions of the national
guards employed against the rioters, was wounded ; the anar-
chists however were obliged to give way, and means were imme-
diately taken to disarm the rebellious sections.

The section of Quinze Vingts was disarmed without difficulty ;

§ IV.] HI8T0AY OF THE CONVENTION TILL OCT; 1795. 569

that of Notre Dame was first driven out of the churchy where
they held their deliberative assemblies^ and in like manner
disarmed; that of Oravilliers was surrounded and compelled
to deliver up their arms* Pichegru then laid down the power
which had been conferred upon him for the moment, and all the
members of what were called the revolutionary committees, as
well as their agents, were disarmed*. From this moment serious
views began to be cherished respecting a constitution which
might put an end to all further conversations respecting the
anarchical and impossible constitution of 1793. As early as the
7th of April a committee of seven deputies was chosen, of whom
Cambac^r^s, Merlin de Douay and Thibaudeau were the most
conspicuous members, to draw up the plan of a new constitution,
or what in their magniloquent phraseology were called orffanic
laws* On the 18th a commission of eleven t was afterwards
chosen, in order to reduce the constitution itself to form, and
Sifyes prevailed upon them to resolve, that the business of le-
gislation should in future be entrusted to two chambers. Whilst
the committee was employed in settling the constitution, those
members of the convention who had shared in all the fanaticism
and madness of the reign of terror continued to rage against their
colleagues, and to indulge in feelings of revenge against per-
sons and their tools who were not more guilty than themselves.
These feelings of bloodthirsty vengeance embittered the minds
of the people, with whom, in this manner, Fouch^, Legendre and
Cambac^r^ played a shameful game, by renewing scenes of exe-
cution. They never ceased till they succeeded in having Fou-
quier TinvQle and Hermann, the public prosecutor and president
of the revolutionary tribunal, together with fifteen of their col-
leagues, brought to the guillotine. This prosecution, which
lasted forty-one days, exposed the members of the convention,
with very few exceptions, to the contempt and hatred of the
whole country, because, during the course of the trial, the crimes
of all those who wished to wash themselves clean and to play the

♦ Collot d'Herbois and Billaud Varennes were afterwards sent to Guiana,
where the former died, and the latter went to St. Domingo, where he became
journalist to king Christophe. Vadier escaped from his guards ; Barr^re was
long kept a prisoner, first in Oleron, then in Saintes, and escaped in Brumaire :
Buonaparte availed himself of him, but could not giye him an appointment,
however willingly he would have done it.

+ The eleven were, Cambac^r^, Merlin de Douay, Sieyes, Thibaudeau,
Lareveill^e-L^peaux, Boissy d'Anglas, Berlier, Daimou, Lesage, Crenz^-La-
touche and Loavet.

570 FIFTH PBRiOD^-HIBCOND DIVISION. [CH, tU

characters of moderates were brought to the light of daj. The
general conviction that the people were weary of such scenesy
afterwards induced the members of the convention legally to
force themselves upon the French people, bj virtue of the con-
stitution, as members of the future legislature.

Besides the four deputies condemned to deportation, eleven
others were at that time arrested, and all possible means were
adopted for strengthening the government against the terrorists^
who were now universaUj disarmed and arrested. With this
view, all the remnant of the Oironde who had been expelled
were, without exception, again admitted into the convention on
the 11th of April, and all those decrees were rescinded which had
been passed against either the persons or properties of those
Frendunen who had been compelled to emigrate on account of
the scenes enacted from the 31st of May till the 2nd of June
1793. Thibaudeau and his friends used all then* exertions in
vain again to consolidate in one body the functions of govern-
ment, which had been divided among so many committees, with
a view of being able to set some bounds to the imminent danger
of an outbreak of the heroes of 1793, and of meeting force by
force. Disorder was become everywhere apparent, the soldiers
were almost whoUy destitute of clothing and shoes, and were in
want of the prime necessaries of life, whilst the countries oecn«
pied by the French were literally devoured by the harpies of
Paris, and the sums which should have been applied to the pay*
ment, provisioning and clothing of the troops were swallowed
up by speculators of all kinds. Cambon having been prose*
cuted together with the other terrorists, the confusion in the
finances became dreadful, and dearth and want increased, be-
cause all means of again giving value to the assignats, which
had become completely worthless, proved utterly fruitlras $ the
people therefore willingly believed the terrorists, that the con-
vention was to blame for all the prevailing distress.

At this time the sectional assemblies still continued to be
held, although they were only allowed to be held on the decads,
and their stormy consultations and bloody resolutions reduced
the convention to no small difficulties. In those portions of the
city where the terrorists had no influence, symptoms of royaUsm
appeared ; in others the inhabitants would hear nothing of the
new constitution, but, in spite of all refusals, demanded that of
1793. These disputes between the sections themselves, and of

§ IV.] HISTOKT OF THB OONVBNTXON TILL OCT. 1795. 571

several of them with the convention, lasted the whole month of
Floreal ; and on the 20th (May 9th) a new formal insurrection
broke out. The sections of Montreuil, Popincourt and Quinze
YingtSj in connexion with the ancient dtj {citf)f wished to
renew the siege of the convention, but the great bodj of the
people was not prepared for this course ; and those members of
the convention who had long been in connexion with the fau-
bourg St. Antoine found means of appeasing its inhabitants ;
the terrorists were therefore obliged to wait for ten days. The
whole afiair was under the guidance of an inconsiderable number
of deputies, by whom the resolutions which they wished to ex-
tort from the convention had been all long previously prepared.
Without any attempt on the part of the convention to prevent
it, what was called a central insurrectionary committee had been
formed, whose members drew up the plan of an insurrection,
such as that of the 10th of August, on the 80th of* Floreal,
the execution of which was appointed for the following day.
The pretence was bread for the poorer classes, and at the same
time the constitution of 1793 for themselves and for those mem-
bers of the convention who were like-minded with them. A
manifesto* was issued and placarded in all the streets, expla-
natory of the objects and reasons of this popular movement.
Bovere, it is true, presented a report on the subject in the name
of the committee of general safety, and proposed some severe
and energetic decrees ; the terrorists however were too numerous
and powerful in the convention, and it ended in nothingf.

On the morning of the Ist of Prairial (May 20th) the alarm-
bell was rung, and the population of the faubourgs of St. An-
toine and St. Marceau, as well as those of the quarters of the
Temple, St. Denis and St. Martin, and the people of the ciiS,
filled the streets in throngs. Up till the very last moment, the
convention found themselves tmable to resolve to have recourse

* This manifesto consists of eight preliminary considirants and eleven
articles ; it was headed Respect aux propriStSe, and was posted up in all
the streets on the 1st of Prairial. It is to be found in Beanlieu, vol. yi.
pp. 171-176.

t Fantin Desodoards, on whose authority in general we place no reliance,
makes the following jnst remark on this subject : — " Cette proclamation ^toit
connue depuis plusieurs jours dans quelqoes d^partemens, et un assez grand
nombre de fonctionnaires publics, nomm^s par les comit^s de gouvemement,
avaient abdiqu^ leurs fonctions, pour se ranger du c6t6 des insurg^s. II ^tait
difficile que les comites de salut public et de stieti g^u^rale n'en iussent pas
pr^venus ; cependant ils ne firent part de I'acte d 'insurrection au corps l^gis-
ktif, que dans le terns oil le mouvement ^tait prononc6.''

572 riFTH P£RI0O. — SECOND DIVISION. [0H« II*

to effective measureg^ because there was a general fear that the
opposite party^ of which the convention was more afraid than
even of the terrorists, would avail itself of these measures to
bring about a counter-revolution. A very few minutes before the
rabble succeeded in forcing their way into the hall^ a decree -was
passed on Bourdon's motion to tike following effect: — That
twelve deputies should be sent into the different sections^ in
order to exhort the people and to assemble the well-disposed
citizens for the protection of the government and legislature.
For this purpose a proclamation was to be issued, and the city
of Paris to be made responsible for the safety of the convention*
In this published appecd all the citizens were farther required to
appear in arms at the appointed place of assembly for their re-
spective sections ; and moreover, every one who was found at
the head of parties of the mob was declared to be beyond the
pale and protection of the law. In another decree, the sitting
then commenced was declared to be permanent, and the com-
mittee for military affairs commissioned and empowered to em-
ploy the troops of the line against the people.

The r^ulation of the military afiairs was on this occasion
placed under the authority of Delmas, because Barras was sent
out of the city with unlimited powers, in order to adopt and put
into execution such military measures as he might think neces-
sary, to remove all those obstructions, some of them intention-
ally raised, which stood in the way of a proper supply of the
capital with the necessaries of life. Commands were at the same
time issued to all the authorities to put the law of the 1st of
Germinal, passed on the motion of Si^yes, rigidly into execu-*
tion. Whilst the deputies who had been sent to the sections
called out and organized the citizens, and Delmas was using all
his energies to collect together as many troops as possible^
the clamouring rabble appeared at the doors of the convention.
Orders were immediately given to close the doors, and a general
who happened to be in the tribunes was authorized to repel force
by force. At the moment in which this commission was given,
the savage mob burst open the doors, rushed in and filled the
hall. The aged Vernier, who was president, found himself quite
unable to stay the uproar, and at two o^clock resigned the chair
to Andreas Dumont.

Dumont was more vigorous than Vernier, and succeeded in
driving the intruders out of the tribunes and from the hall of the

4 IV.] HISTORY OP THE CONVENTION TILL OCT, 1795. 573

assembly, but only for a short time. The people whom Dumont
had called to his aid and employed as police were overpowered,
and the noisy rabble again filled the chamber ; Dumont gave
way and resigned his place to Boissy d'Anglas, who has made
himself immortal by his conduct on this occasion. Thibaudeau,
who was his colleague in the committee of the constitution, in-
forms us that he was at that time a decided royalist, although he
was then still obliged carefully to conceal his opinions, but he
rendered services to the republic at this moment of danger, and
his conduct inspired respect even in the minds of the savage
mob, by whom his life was threatened. He firmly refused to
submit to the assembly the revolutionary proposals of his col-
leagues, the terrorists, whose army then filled the hall, and was
formally besieged in the president's chair. Ferand, a young but
influential member, who attempted to aid the president, was
thrown down, cruelly maltreated in the presence of the president
and the assembly, and dragged out of the hall. The head of the
unfortunate Ferand was cut off, stuck upon the point of a pike,
and held up in the president's face as a means of terror. Boissy
d'Anglas with one hand turned aside the bloody head, and with
the other the thrust of a pike which was aimed against his
person^ and, in defiance of threats, imprecations, and the danger
of life, he steadfastly persisted in refusing to put any question
to the vote, because, as he justly alleged, it would be impossible
to decide which of those who spoke and voted were deputies and
which were not.

The tumult had continued from two till seven o'clock ; at that
time, when Boissy d'Anglas himself was becoming weaiy, the
noise and clamour in the hall became so fierce, that even the
originators of this fearful scene were unable to find a hearing;
towards nine o'clock the insurrection first began to assume a
methodical character. The people had been in the hall from two
o'clock ; the deputies however sat upon elevated benches, and
the mob remained in the open space below ; on a sign given by
some of the terrorists, the ringleaders of the rabble began about
this hour to force the deputies to descend fix>m their elevated
seats to the floor of the house, and there, mixed with the noisy
multitude, they were to bring forward their motions and to de-
liver their votes. The aged Vernier was precisely the proper
president for the objects of the terrorists; he was therefore
Again compelled to resume the chair^ and to submit one after

574 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8B0OND DIVISION* [CH. II»

another the decrees which had been akeady prepared. By virtue
of the first decree^ Bourbotte was appointed commander-in*chief
of the military forces. All the decrees which had been passed
since the 9th of Thermidor were rescinded, and everything
brought back to the condition of things in the time of Uie tri-
umvirate. A decree was also passed in the same tumultuary
manner, by which the various committees of government were
suspended from the exercise of their functions. An extraordi-
nary commission of jacobins was appointed, consisting of the
most violent terrorists, such as Bourbotte, Piieur de la Mame,
Duroi and Duquesnoy, to whom the business of the committees
was entrusted, and Romme was named president ; after all which
the convention was released from this ignominious bondage.

As the night advanced, the women and ringleaders of the
mob began to relax in their efforts and the rabble to scatter^
when Legendre, Auguis, Kervel^n, and other deputies, who
had been despatched to rouse and organise the citizens belong
ing to the wealthier classes, appeared in the Tuileries. The
number of deputies who had chosen Romme for their president
was comparatively small ; the citizens who were hastening to the
scene of tumult cared very little for the overthrow of the con-
vention, which they hated ; but they felt that, if the times of
terror returned, their lives and properties would be exposed to
imminent danger, and they therefore came in military order and
completely armed. Four divisions of this citizen force appeared
at the four entrances to the hall, and the mob, which was at first
detained, but to which afterwards free egress was given, being
seized with terror, rushed out and dispersed in all directionJB.
Thibaudeau, who was himself present and threatened with death,
has given an excellent description of this disgraceful scene, which
lasted from seven o'clock in the morning till two in the night,
for which reason we shaU subjoin his account in a note*. It was

* Thibaudeau, vol. i. p. 167 : ■*- *' Les Thermidoriens parcouraient lea
sectioiia. Lea r^pablicains honntos, par amour de la lib«t6, let geas qui
avaient quelque chose k perdre par la crainte du pillage, des loyalistes mdme»
pour sauver leurs tdtes, arriv^rent au secours de la convention. D'un autre
c6t^, k mesure que Ton avan9ait dans la nuit, la pluspart des inBurg^, qui
^talent dans la cour et dans le jardin des Tuileries, se retirerent peu k peu par
la raison que les Parisiens, selon Texpression du cardinal de Retz, tie 9av€Hi pa»
Be desheurer, II ne restait dans la salle et les tribunes que les plus acham^.
I^es comit^ forment le plan d'attaque. Quatre colonnes arrivent & la foia par
les quatre entrC^es de la salle, et y p^nkrent au pas de charge. Les factienx
surpris essaient de les repousser ; le repr^entant Kerv^^gan, qui ^toit k la
tto d'une des colonnes, est l^g^rement blesstf, mats la multitade, que I'Apoa*

§ IV.] HIBTOBT OP TBB OONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 575

singular that the committee of public welfare, which held its
sittings in the same palace as the convention, remained the whole
day perfectly quiet ; the committee of general safety also, whose
place of assembly was at the north side of the place de Carou-
sel, could have easOy at any moment sent messengers through
the rue de PEchelle to the Palais Royal, which however was not
done. The military committee held its sittings in the hotel de
Noailles, rue St Honor^, and Delmas, its president, had imme-
diately despatched orders to all the military quartered round
Paris far and near to protect the conveyance of supplies, and
without delay to march into the city ; before the troops of the
line arrived however, the national guards had already succeeded
in scattering the mob.

In the well-known state of feeling entertained by the national
guard towards the convention, which had encouraged and sub-
mitted to all these enormities, which were now practised upon
themselves, the troops of the line were summoned to the capital,
and arrived on the 2nd, because those scenes were renewed with
redoubled violence on the 2nd and 3rd of Prairial. The question
at issue was the deliverance of the whole body of terrorist depu-
ties, that is, those who had been ringleaders in the night be*
tween the 1st and 2nd of Prairial, and at the same time the four
deputies condemned to deportation, who had been colleagues
with Robespierre in the committee of public welfare.- There was
also an anxiety to snatch from the hands of justice the person
who had murdered the unfortunate Ferand before the eyes of the
president. The convention immediately rescinded the resolutions
forced upon them during the tumult on the night of the 1st of
Prairial, and caused the copies of them to be burned ; and further
decreed, that the deputies who had been actively engaged in these
shameful proceedings should be forthwith arrested and brought
to trial*. The terrorists attempted on the 2nd of Prairial to or-
ganise a regular and formidable opposition to all these decrees.

vante rend incapable de rdeietance, cherche son salut dans la faite. Elle ne
trouve point d'iasues Ubres, car ellea ^taient remplies par les d^fensenrs de la
convention. Pendant quelque terns on resta p^le m^le vainqueurs et vaincus,
jusqu'it ce qa*enfin ponr fedre cesser ce d^ordre on d^laya nne porte et Ton
forma deux haies an traven dee quelles les r^olt^ se retirirent sans autre
panition que quelques coups de pied que la garde nationale leur distribua en
passant."

* These were : Duquesnoy, Romme, Duroi, Bourbotte^ Prieur de la Marne,
Soubrany, Groujoo, Albitte ain^, Peyssard, Lecarpentier de la Manche, Pinet
aSn6, and Fay an. On the 2nd of Prairial the decree of arrest passed against
these deputies was changed into a decree of impeachment.

576 FIirrH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. IT.

On the 2nd the terrorists turned to good account one of the
necessaiy consequences of this continual system of fluctuation,
which at that time was followed by the convention and after-
wards by the directory^ in order to keep the royalists in check
through fear of the terrorists^ and the terrorists through fear of
the royalists. The decree for disarming the sansculottes had not
been carried into execution for fear of increasing the power of the
royalists; when therefore the tumult was again to be com-
menced^ a species of head-quarters for the sansculottes was
established in the faubourg St. Antoine^ and the whole force of
the labourers and artisans of that quarter was regularly or-
ganized. The faubourgers^ drawn up in militaiy array, marched
with threats against the Tuileries on the 2nd of Prairial (May
21st). The sections of Popincourt, Montreuil, and Quinze
Vingts reached their destination without hindrance, and sent a
deputation, which was admitted to the bar of the convention, to
require that the murdergr of the deputy Ferand, arrested by the
national guard of the section of the Butte des Moulins, should
be immediately set at liberty.

As the troops of the line had not then arrived in Paris, the
convention in their difficulties had agaui appealed to those sec-
tions which had previously rendered them aid and protection.
Oillet and Aubry, formerly artillery officers, were placed under
Delmas's command by the convention, and the sections of the
city which they had called to arms were led against the fau-
bourgers, who in the meantime had transferred their head-
quarters to the Hdtel de Ville. The sectional battalions were at
first repulsed, till at length both parties were drawn up ready
for action in the neighbourhood of the Tuileries. Delmas was
entrenched in the palace as in a castle ; he was provided with
artillery, and the faubourgers also had dragged some guns with
them on their advance. Had Delmas used his artillery, he must
have relied on the cannoneers of the national guard ; but all these
went over to the side of the faubourgers, because they belonged to
the same bold and resolute class as themselves, and their watch-
word was the constitution of 1793. Delmas therefore accepted
the offer of general Dubois, who proposed himself as a mediator ;
but, under the pretext of mediation, the main object was to gain
time, till at length the regular troops should make their appear-
ance in the city. It was agreed that the faubourgers should re-
main quiet till eleven o'clock, and during the interval it was

§ IV,] HISTORY OP THE CONVENTION TILI. OCT. 1795. 577

known that many of them, according to their custom, would
undoubtedly return home. Immediately afterwards Joachim
Murat, then a captain of light cavahy, arrived with a detach-
ment of his regiment, and was most joyfully received by Del-
mas. From that time forward the convention, like Louis Phi-
lippe, founded its rule completely on military power, which it
organized in Paris, and consisted of veteran and paid troops,
under the name of the army of the l7th military division*.

General Menou, a man of old and noble family, was at that
time commander of the regular troops in Paris, or, as it was
called, of the l7th military division. He never gained much
reputation as a general, although he was with Buonaparte in
Egypt, and after Kleber's death had even the command of the
troops; but he enjoyed a great reputation in the salons of
madame de Stael, in consequence of the elegance of his man-
ners, his smooth and sophistical language, and his refinement in
the delicate art of flattery : Baraguay d'Hilliers was the chief of
his general staff. Dubois, who was a cavalry general, and of
whose services the convention had previously accidentally availed
itself, and the old democratic general Berruyer, offered their as-
sistance. Barras had now returned in all haste from his mission,
arrived in the city, and joined his colleagues Freron, Delmas
and Laporte, in order to employ the newly-organized military
force of the convention in its name with unlimited powers. On
the 2nd of Prairial the authorities thought themselves strong
enough to bid defiance to the jacobin force and to cause Ferand's
murderer to be executed, after he had been first condemned by
a court-martial, which form of administering justice Buonaparte
always afterwards employed, instead of the revolutionary tri-
bund. The stage for the guillotine was erected in front of the
H6tel de Ville, on the place near which, as we have already ob-
served, the terrorists met in council, in the very chambers in
which Chaumette, Pache and their companions had formerly
directed the consultations of the common-council of Paris. The

* In all French histories of the revolation, the fact is carefully concealed
(which, politically considered, we altogether approve), that from Prairial till
1833, the paid veterans of the hattle-fielda have always decided the fate of the
people : we must admit the fact, however disagreeable it is. In his report
of the 3rd of Prairial, Doulcet de Pontecoulant, Monit. An. iii. No. 249.
p. 1006, expressly says, " Ceux qui ont remportS la victovre etoient pour la pluS'
part h FisuruB et dans lea combats fameux qui ont illustr^ les armes r^bli-
caines."

VOL. VI. 2 P

578 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

attempt of carrying the execution into effect without the assist-
ance of regular troops completely failed. The faubourgers libe-
rated the murderer by force^ bore him in triumph through the
rue de St. Antoine^ barricaded the faubourg, and pointed their
cannon against the ranks of the gilded youth, who had ofiered
their services to the convention as volunteers.

The number of these Volunteers afterwards grew to 1200;
these formed in military array, marched in regular order to
the faubourg, and as long as it was supposed they were sup-
ported by the regular troops they met with no resistance. They
searched a great number of houses in order to find and bring
back the murderer; among others the extensive dwelling of
general Santerre, and brought away with them such pieces of
cannon as they found. The faubourgers however no sooner per-
ceived that there were no infantry of the line or cavalry, than
they speedily recovered from their fears, felt ashamed of their
cowardice, rose en masses occupied all the ways of egress, com-
pelled the volunteers to restore the cannon and lay down their
arms, and drove them out of the faubourg and back to the city,
amidst abuse, scorn and contempt.

The whole body of the national guards and the regular troops
under Menou were now at length called out, and, accompanied
by the three deputies of the convention, marched to the Place de
la Bastille. All the streets were barricaded, and some mortars
were brought upon the ground, as if the intention were to bom-
bard the faubourg. The deputies of the convention undoubt-
edly were desirous of burning the faubourg; Menou however
hesitated to obey this cruel command, tried to negotiate, and Ids
terms of submission were agreed to by the deluded workmen.
Ferand's murderer was to be delivered up, but he threw himself
from the window before this could be effected. Their artillery
was surrendered, and the people consented to be disarmed. The
cannon and arms were indeed once more restored, but at a later
period they were persuaded to give up both of their own accord.
From this moment all danger from the sansculottes was at an
end ; but the convention was stiU obliged to retain the regular
troops in the city, because both the royalists and citizens were
anxious to be rid of the assembly.

Very severe measures were at first pursued against the teiw
rorists. The people of the faubourgs were compelled to sur-
render, and leave to their fate all those who had played a coo-

§ IV.] HISTORY OF THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 579

spicuous part in the late disturbances. The persons arrested
were afterwards placed before a half-civil and half-military com-
mission ; thirty-one of them^ mostly gens d^armes who had left
the service, were condemned to death, five to a year in chains,
six to deportation, and nineteen to imprisonment. The deputies
against whom a decree of impeachment had been passed on the
9th, viz. Romme, Soubrany, Duquesnoy, Maure, Ooujon, Bour-
botte, Duroi, Peyssard, Prieur de la Marne, Pinet the elder,
Lecarpentier, Boriel, Fayan, Rhul, Forestier, Lavall^e, Pautris-
sel, Sergent, Beaudot, Lacoste, Allard, Lejeune, Javogues, Der-
tigoite, Mallarm^, Escudier, Monestier and Laignelot, were also
to be brought to trial on the 29th, but the most of them had
saved themselves by flight, and only eight appeared before the
court Of these eight, Forestier was acquitted, Peyssard con-
demned to deportation, Romme, Goujon, Duquesnoy, Duroi,
Bourbotte and Soubrany, to death. The aged Rhul committed
suicide; the other six were desirous of exhibiting a horrible
tragedy before the eyes of the judges and numerous spectators.
They had procured a dagger, which each handed to the other as
soon as sentence of death was pronounced ; they tried to com-
mit suicide, but their attempts were not in all cases mortal:
This horrible scene only rendered such judicial trials more
shocking 1 Duquesnoy, Romme and Goujon stabbed them-
selves ; Soubrany, Bourbotte and Duroi were wounded, and guil-
lotined whilst covered with blood. If we are not falsely in-
formed^ it is an error to suppose that Romme fell dead, as we
have been told he was saved and returned to the study of his
mathematics.

From this moment the whole tone of the convention was sud-
denly changed, stronger fears were entertained of the royalists
than of the terrorists, and this fear became so urgent, that at
the end of September several thousand of the confederates were
again armed, and their cannon and weapons restored, in order
to protect the convention. This fear was so great in Floreal,
that Si^yes, who wished to cast suspicion upon the new consti-
tution, and even Thibaudeau, who had a large share in its com-
position, were accused of royalism. The commission* appointed
on the 17th of Floreal to draw up the form of a new constitution

* This commissioD consisted of Lesage, Daunoti, Boissy d'Anglas, Cretiz6
Latouche, Berlier, Louvet, Lareveilldre*L^peatix, Lanjuinais, Duraod-Maillane,
Baudin des Ardennes, and Thibaudeau.

2p2

580 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. If.

were sooner prepared to make their report than was usual in such
cases^ and Boissy d'Anglas, who was at that time (secretly) not
only a royalist^ but wished for the restoration of the Bourbons,
presented it to the convention ; Siey^s however was indignant,
that he had had no share in preparing the draft. This dialectic,
sly and subtle priest had contrived at that time to throw around
himself such an appearance of profound depth in all political
wisdom, that he and others regarded his co-operation as indis-
pensable in the drawing-up of any constitutional code for
France. He had in fact been chosen as one of the committee of
eleven of which this commission was composed, but preferred
remaining in the committee of public welfare of which he was a
member. The convention had previously passed a law, that no
deputy, who was a member of any of the committees of govern-
ment, could form one of the constitutional commission of eleven ;
Si^y^s therefore preferred remaining in his former position. As
he, like all other metaphysicians, looked upon himself as su-
premely wise, merely because he was obscure and subtle, he
commenced a violent dispute with Thibaudeau, who defended the
draft in which he had taken a great part, but respectmg which
the abbd had not been consulted. This furnishes Thibaudeau
with an opportunity of presenting his readers with a sharp deli-
neation of the powers and character of the metaphysician, who
was afterwards active in the time of Buonaparte; we subjoin
the passage in a note*. The passage is important, inasmuch as

* 'M^moires de Thibaadeaa/ vol. i. (Convention) p. 179: speaking of
Si^vis, the writer says, " Son caract^re le rendait incapable de discussion,
li etait organist pour la pens^e et la th^orie plus que pour Taction et la pra-
tique Dans les comit^s il prenait rarement stance avec ses col-
logues ; pendant les d^lib^ratioDS il se promenait en long et en large ; et
lorsqu'on le pressait de donner son avis, il le donnait, et s'^Ioignait comme s'il
eUt voulu signifier par-Ik qu'il'n'y avait rien & y retrancherni k y opposer. . . .

Sans avoir de liaison avec cet homme celibre, vers lequel je ne me

sentaiapaa attirS, je me'^tais souvent trouvd avec lui ; je I'avais observe et
mesur^ et je croyais Tavoir bien jug^. Dans la discussion sur la constitution,
je combattis peut-Stre avec un peu de passion ses systOmes, paroeqne sans
mettre en doute le genre de merite qui lui ^toit propre et les services qu'il
avait rendus k la libertd, je n'aimais pas qu'on lui fit, en bien et en mal, une
reputation outr^e. II le sentit, et m'accusa parmi ses affid^ d'etre vendu aa
royalisme. Je n'imitai point son injustice, car je ne I'avais jamais cm venda
k la terreur. II y avait dans la commission des onze un partie monarchique.
II se composait de Lesage d'Eure et Loire, Boissy d'Anglas et Lanjuinais. Je
ne parle pas du vieux Durand Maillane dont I'oplnion ne comptait pas. Mais
ils n'6taient pas pour cela de Bourbonniens. Boissy d'Anglas fut cependant
I'objet de quelques soup^oos. Je ne les partageais pas. Les ^venemens pos-
t^rieurs les ont (5claircis. Les autres membres de la commission ^talent de bonne
foi r^publicains."

§ IV.] HXSTOHY OF THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 581

it makes us acquainted i^ith the tendencies of the men M^ho sat
in the commission together with Thibaudeau. Boissy d^Anglas^
who brought forward the report in the convention of the 23rd of
June^ belonged to royalism, as we have ahready observed, and was
afterwards one of Pichegru's warmest supporters when he con-
spired against the republic.

The debates had been carried on in the convention from the
4th of July till the 20th respecting the draft of the constitu-
tion brought forward by the committee, and most of its articles
had been adopted, when Si^yes suddenly came forward with a
new constitution of his own manufacture*. Little had now
been heard for the last two years of the great reputation which
the abb^ enjoyed, and public opinion, which is so often erroneous
in its estimate of great and celebrated men, that we must often
entertain doubts of our own and of all human judgments, gave
such increased weight to his influence, that for some days his
authority prevailed over that of the whole commission. The
consideration of the constitution, which had been regularly and
officially brought forward, was in some measure laid aside, in
order first to deliberate on the dialectic and speculative work of
art produced by the fantastical abb^, which, in reference to its
numerous artificial and technical terms, would have done honour
to a German philosopher. With this honour, however, Si^yfes waii
compelled to be satisfied, for the practical men in the assembly
insisted on carrying through the draft presented by the commis-
sion with very few changes.

It does not lie within the sphere of our work, which cannot
embrace completeness of detail, to examine the merits of this
new constitution, by virtue of which the executive and legisla-
tive parts of the state were to be completely separated, and the
latter transferred to two chambers, or even to give an account of
its contents; it is obvious however at first sight that a great
fault was committed, in reference to the relation of the five
directors to whom the government was entrusted by the legis-
lative bodies. The directors neither obtained any influence
upon the chambers nor upon the drawing up of the laws, which
were to be made without and independent of them ; they were
completely isolated, and to have no connexion whatever with

* He proposed a tribunat, gouvemement, legislafure etjury constitutionnaire.
The leading features of his plan will be found in that which he afterwards
drew up for Buonaparte.

582 FIFTH PERIOD, — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

the chambers. One of these chambers was to consist of 500 de-
puties^ Tvho were to be at least thirty years of age^ and to have
the exclusive right, not only of deliberating upon the laws, but
also of proposing them^ since neither the right of proposing nor
the privilege of rejection was granted to the government. The
second or upper chamber, called the council of ancients, was
to consist of 250 deputies, who were to be more than forty years
old, and to be either married men or widowers. The council
was to examine the laws brought forward and passed in the
council of 500, and then either unconditionally to accept or
rc;ject them.

A third part of the deputies of both councils, determined by
lot, were to retire each year, and to be replaced by new mem-
bers to be elected in their stead, and the same was to be the
case with one of the five directors. The five directors were
to be chosen by the council of ancients, fix>m a list of fifty
names selected from their own body by the council of 500 ; the
councils it is true were to be chosen by the people, no longer
directly, but through the instrumentality of electors chosen for
that purpose by the people in their primary assemblies. On
the 18th of September following, the palace of the Luxemburg,
which was wholly unfiirnished, was appropriated for the resi-
dence and sittings of the directory, the Tuileriea for the council
of the ancients, and the Palais Bourbon for that of the 500;
the last however afterwards held its first sittings in the ridings
school, where the constituent assembly had held their first
meetings, and which occupied the site on which the present
rue Rivoli is built. The convention had recognized and some-
what modified the new constitution ; it was then for form's sake
to be accepted by the assembled people (which indeed must
always be a mere form) ; for this purpose the convention, by a
decree of the 2nd Fructidor (August the 19th) ordered the pri-
mary assemblies to be summoned for the 20th of the same month
(September 6th), and shortly before they added some new clauses
to the constitution, of which some notice must be taken, as
measures of contemptible selfishness and love of rule.

The members of the convention were well aware, that if the
people were left free to exercise their choice, a very small num-
ber of their body would find places in the new legislature ; they
feared, and with good reason, that the royalists, who now began
to raise their heads in all directions, would get the whole power

§ IV.] HISTORY OP THE CONVENTION T1I4L OCT. 17^5. 583

into their own hands, overthrow all the new institutions, and in
the spirit of cruel revenge, persecute the members of the con-
vention as well as all the friends of a republic ; this they were
anxious to prevent In order therefore to secure the preserva-
tion of liberty, even the most distinguished members of the con-
vention, who had no vengeance to fear, assented to this appa-
rently selfish measure, which was the very opposite of that pre-
viously adopted by the constituent assembly in reference to their
participation in tixe labours of the legislative one by which it
was succeeded. By a law of the convention of the 5th of Fruc-
tidor, which was passed at the same time as the decree for
calling the primary assemblies was issued, it was prescribed,
that two-thirds of the new legislators should be chosen fix>m the
member^ of the present convention, and the remaining one-third
be freely elected. On the 13th of Fructidor (August 30th) a
second clause was added to the new constitution, which reduced
the choice of the new legislature almost wholly to the members
of the convention. As it was known how few of the members
of the convention could reasonably calculate upon the voice of
the electors, a law was passed, by virtue of which it was decreed,
that in all cases of double elections to the council of 500, or where
the same member was chosen for two places, the convention,
and not the people, should possess the right of naming others in
the place of those who had been so elected.

These additions and limitations to the constitution filled the
public mind with indignation ; there was however a universal
joy throughout all the departments of. the kingdom, that there
was at last some hopes of a constitiition, and that the people
were to be at length delivered from the united tyranny of the
government, legislature and conv^tion, and from the use of
those means of working upon the people which the old jacobins
possessed ; there was some anxiety for Paris alone. The citizens
of Paris availed themselves of the primary assemblies, which
were to be held in accordance with the piioclamation of the con-
vention, to erect a centre of resistance in the very midst of the
sections of wealthy inhabitants who had helped the convention
in its need by force of arms. As the convention ventured to
force 500 of its members upon the nation as its future lawgivers,
and by this means also to secure the conduct of the government
to its members who had become objects of universal hatred, the
most distinguished citizens of Paris did not feel themselves very

584 FIFTH PERIOD.^SBCOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

strongly bound to adhere to the letter of the law. As to the
government^ it was obvious, that as the five directors were to be
chosen from the fivefold list to be drawn up by the council of
500, none but members of the convention would be admitted
into the directory.

The citizens again took advantage of the idea, of which such
use had been made during the reign of terror, assumed them-
selves to be the sovereign people, held assemblies for consulta-
tion in their various locaHties, and wished to negotiate with the
convention and to inspire it with respect by the importance of
the persons whom they imited in opposition to its insignificant
members. As soon as the most distinguished sections of Paris
employed the language of protest and assumed an attitude of
opposition to the convention, it was easily foreseen that matters
must come to a contest, and the hopes of the royalists began to
revive. The frequenters of madame de StaePs salon now became
full of activity and life, the favourers of the old regime and of
the constitution of 1792 began again to show themselves, and the
Yendean officers and soldiers who had served under them came
in crowds to Paris ; but at first the persons who railed* and
clamoured against the clauses appended to the convention were^
as Thibaudeau informs us, chiefly confined to adventurers, lite-
rati, journalists, and writers upon belles lettres. The convention
in the meantime became alarmed at the movements in the capital,
and collected troops in the neighbourhood of Paris.

The most distinguished citizens of Paris, who inhabited the
quarters of du Mail, de la Butte des Moulins, des Champs
Elys^es and du Th^^tre Fran^ais (Od^on), now assumed and
played the characters which had been previously enacted by the
inhabitants of the faubourgs, and the ThSltre Franpais, as well
as the former convent of the Jilles de St. Thomas^ became the
assembling-places of the representatives of the citizens, who
were indignant against the selfishness of the convention. Among
the most zealous on this occasion was the section Lepelletier,

• Thibaudeau, M^moirea, i. p. 189 : " Parmi les agitateurs des sections
on remarquait le g^n^ral Miranda, Lemattre, ancien 8^ciltaire^g6n6ral an con-
seil des finances, Archambaud, avocat, ensuite des hommes de lettres et des
joumalistes, tels que Laharpe, Quatrem^re de Quincy, Lacretelle le jeune,
Fievee, Cadet Gassincourt, pharmacien, Langlois, Richer- S^rizy, &c. II ^toit
facile de pr6voir que cela ne finirait pas sans d^chirement. Les conseils du
gouvemement, nc pouvant plus trop compter pour le maintien de Tordre sur
Jes citoyens de Paris divises entre euz, firent venir quelqaes troupes dans la
capitale.''

§ IV.] HISTORY OP THE CONVBNTION TILL OCT. 1795. 585

i^hich was formerly called that of tiiefiUes de 8L TTiomas, which
was situated close to the Tuileries^ and had continued to the
very last to carry on the stru^le in favour of the royal family.
This section held its sittings in the convent, which occupied the
site of the present exchange, and to which there was a direct
way through the rue Yivienne, in which some of the most
wealthy inhabitants of Paris had their residences. On the 11th
of Fructidor, and therefore two days before the addition of the
second clause, which was decreed on the 13th of Fructidor,
this section had sent a threatening deputation to the conven-
tion, although the convention, as early as the 22nd of August,
bad forbidden all meetings of citizens for the purposes of deli-
beration, correspondence, or public orations on political ques-
tions. When the primary assemblies really united afterwards,
this same section Lepelletier declared that theTh^fitre Fran9ais,
their place of assembly, should be the place of meeting for a
central committee organized to put some limits to the usurpations
of the convention. The committee was then to issue a procla-
mation addressed to all Frenchmen, and all the sections of Paris
were earnestly invited to send their plenipotentiaries to the place
just mentioned.

The convention no sooner declared those to be guilty of high
treason who dared to join a central committee, which, like the
old common-council of Paris, would have formed a species of
government and le^slature opposed to the convention, than the
section Lepelletier appealed to the same theory of the sovereignty
of the people to which the convention owed its very existence.
The section alleged, all executive or legislative bodies must give
way to an assembly, which was of equal power with the whole
assembled people and derived its authority immediately from
them; and the central committee was bold enough again to
renew their meetings, after having been once scattered by sol-
diers sent for that purpose by the convention. On the day of
the union of the primary assemblies (the 20th Fructidor, Sep-
tember 6th), the dispute had come to a question of open feud, in
consequence of the above-mentioned declaration of the section
Lepelletier, which insisted on the formation of a central com-
mittee. The Parisians were favourable to the constitution, but
rejected the clauses annexed to the original document on the 5th
and 13 th of Fructidor, and maintained, that the same course had
been pursued by the majority of primary assemblies in the de-

586 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BOOND DIVISION. [OH« II.

partmentfl. The convention on the contrary alleged, but with-
out at first giving any proof of the truth of the allegation^ which
it afterwards attempted to do, that the majority of the primary
assemblies had voted not only in favour of the constitution, but
also of the annexed clauses.

This allegation was unquestionably false, as there is no doubt
that three-fourths of the votes were opposed to the annexed
clauses ; but had it even been true, as Thiers alleges with that
boldness and presumptuousness by which he is so remarkably
characterized, it would really prove nothing, because every one
who has any experience knows how easily the votes of the lower
classes in all such places can be obtained, where even a power-
ful opposition party cannot contend against the government
and public officials with the same means which the government
can command. Such was the opinion of the Parisians, who
continued to persevere in their opposition, when measures were
adopted to furnish them with an appearance of proof from
registers which they could not examine, and which were sup-
posed to confirm the correctness of the opinion alleged. The
same battalions of the sections, which a few months before had
delivered the convention, were now in daily readiness on the
first beat of the drum to proceed to the convent of St. Thomas
in order to protect their fellow-citizens against the convention,
whilst the convention caused 3000 or 4000 of the same confede-
rates, from whose violence they had been previously delivered,
to be daily exercised in the Tuileries gardens, in order to employ
them as occasion might demand. The aged general Berruyer
oi^anized this mob, to whom their arms had been again restored.
On the 7th of September, the convention issued a decree of
terror in opposition to the resolution which had been adopted
by the central committee on the previous day, inviting all the
communes throughout the country to unite and make common
cause with the sections. The punishment of death was decreed
against any citizen who should take and convey any message
from any commune, section or body of troops, to any of those
bodies respectively. As the violence of the movement against
the annexed clauses, or properly speaking, against the members
of the convention, manifestly proceeded from the royalists and
those who had been oppressed by the men of the revolution, the
convention passed a most unrighteous and revolutionary law on
the 11th Fructidor (September 21st), which exposed its mem-

§ IV.] HISTORY OF THB CONVBNTION TILL OCT. IJdS. 587

bers to universal hatred, because it robbed a great portion of
the free citizens of the state of their civil rights. All non-juring
priests and their relations, and all, even distant relations of the
emigrants, were excluded from every description of public
office.

The convention, totally unconcerned respecting all those
protestations, had caused a report to be prepared and presented
by Gomaire, a deputy, in the name of the commission, in refer-
ence to the result of the votes in the primary assemblies, in
which it is most ridiculously affirmed that 914,813 out of 929,326
qualified voters had given their voices in favour of the constitu-
tion together with the annexed clauses* When this splendid
result was communicated to the assembly, the president first
rose, and then the whole convention, and the former solemnly
announced in the name of the body at large, that the constitu-
tion with the clauses annexed had been adopted, and that the
primary assemblies were to take their measures accordingly.
This declaration however was altogether disregarded by the
section Lepelletier, which on its part proceeded on the 23rd of
September to declare its sittings permanent. These assemblies
really continued to be held, and the national guards were ready
to protect their convention in the Theatre Fran9ais or in the
convent against the convention in the Tuileries. On the other
hand, the convention had appointed a commission as early as
the 21st, which was to devise and surest the best means of
aiding the republic by force. The names of the persons placed
on this commission immediately recall to mind the energy of
the reign of terror : these were, Roux, Florent Guyot, TalUen,
Pons and Barras. Barras, as on many former occasions, was ap-
pointed commander-in-chief of the whole military force of the
convention, and Menou, together with the other generals, was
directed to receive his orders from him and the deputies asso-
ciated with him.

The time for the elections was now at hand; before however
all the electors were named, the section Lepelletier attempted to
effisct a union against the decrees of the convention of the 5 th and
13th of Fructidor, according to which the new legislative council
was to contain at least two-thirds of the members of the present
convention. With this view, and before the day of the election
arrived, the section called all the electors of the city of Paris, as
far as they had yet been chosen, to come to their committee.

588 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8B00ND DIVISION. [CH. II.

The committee then proceeded on the 11th Vend^miaire (Oc-
tober 3rd) to form an assembly in the The&tre Fran^ais, assu-
ming in some measure a sovereign character in opposition to
the convention. This was indeed illegal and openly hostile ; the
convention therefore despatched one of their officers with a small
number of soldiers to the theatre^ who was ordered to read in
the hearing of the meeting the severe ordinance by which the
union of the representatives of several sections in the same place
was strictly forbidden ; the officer of the convention was hissed,
the soldiers who accompanied him driven out, and a resolution
passed, that the parties should again assemble on the following
day, the 4th of October : as a proof that things were now come
to extremities, the convention also declared its sittings per-
manent.

In pursuance of their resolution, the section Lepelletier and
those who united with them assembled anew on the 4th in the
convent, which served as their head-quarters ; the whole of the
citizens of Paris were in commotion, and it is said that more
than 20,000 national guards were under arms ; the convention
therefore determined to meet force by force, and general Menoa
was required to take measures to that effect. Menou was by
no means the fit man for such a commission, because he not
only daily met the leaders of the sectional battalions, but the
originators of the whole afiair, in the salons of madame de
Stael, and was far more intimately connected with them than
with the convention. Baron Menou, as commandant of the I7th
military division, at the head of the regular troops of the hor-
rible rabble of patriots, was ordered to act with the greatest
severity. He was however far too prudent to obey the command,
and had no desire to be the champion of people whose distinction
in the country was on the eve of its fall ; he therefore unhesita-
tingly refused to have these fearful bands of patriots associated
with the regular troops. Orders were given him to shut up the
plac^ of assembly used by the section Liepelletier, to dissolve
the central committee, and to disarm all those citizens who be-
longed to the body. This might have been accomplished had
he been willing to have recourse to grape-shot and the bayonet
before he advanced into the rue Vivienne; that however he
was unwilling to do against the citizens, and against friends and
companions, who fought for a cause to which he was in his
heart attached.

§ IV.] HISTOBY OP THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 589

On the 1 2th of Vend^miaire (October 4th), Menou had re-
course to all means of delaying the execution of the commands
given by the deputies of the convention who were to watch over
his conduct; he made a long halt in the Palais Royal; in the
evening however^ the deputy Laporte compelled him to proceed
through the rue Vivienne against the convent^ which was the
place of meeting of their enemies, and however unwilling, he
was obliged to obey. Notwithstanding Menou's acquittal, when
he was afterwards called before a court-martial, it is obvious
even to those who know nothing of military tactics, that in order
to fulfil this command of military terror, he neither adopted the
proper measures nor had recourse to means of cruel severity.
Every one acquainted with the rue Vivienne knows how easily
he could then be attacked from the windows and roofs of its lofty
houses, which were firmly barricaded, unless he first inspired
dread by his cannon, which could afterwards be of no service.
The Rue RicheUeu, Croix des Petits Champs and the Boule-
vards afforded space for the national guards who were behind
him to form, and to enable them to drive together and to shut
up the troops of the line in the street. He has been therefore
reproached with intentionally leaving his rear unprotected, and
with neither suffering the troops to fire nor to chaige with the
bayonet in the neighbourhood of the convent, in order to have a
pretence for capitulating to the sections. Menou, on his part,
alleged, that he had saved his people by an agreement with the
citizens, because he was threatened from the windows and roofs
of the strongly barricaded houses, whilst the section was in his
front in the convent, and the national guards in his rear. The
convention lost nothing by the affair, for in terms of the agree-
ment the troops were allowed to return to the Tuileries, and
were there drawn up. We have already observed that Menou
was accused of treason, immediately dismissed, at a later period
tried by a court-martial and honourably acquitted.

Barras, Letoumeur and Delmas, to whom the convention had
given full powers to conduct and bring to an issue by force of
arms the war which had been just commenced between it and the
sections, were now obliged to look out for another general, who
might be capable of terminating the contest with the citizens on
the following day by grape-shot and bayonets. Barras conceived
he had found such a man in the Corsican Napoleon Buonaparte.
This officer had obtained a high reputation throughout the whole

590 FIFTH PERIOD, — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

of Europe by the conquest of Toulon^ and for having compelled
the English to evacuate the harbour, notwithstanding the great
superiority of their naval force. Whilst in Toulon, he had be*
come acquainted not only with Barras, but with other deputies
belonging to the terrorist party, among whom was the younger
Robespierre. This acquaintance had made him an object of
suspicion since the 9th of Thermidor. The government wished
to remove him from the scene of activity in Paris, but he refused
to serve in the infantry in La Vendue, because he had been an
officer of artillery, and he had been therefore removed from active
employment since May 1795 by Aubry, who was anxious to be
rid of all the friends of the old jacobins. Aubry, as a deputy of
the convention, at that time superintended the organization of
the army.

The troops of the convention collected in the city, the com*
mand of which, on Barras's motion, was co.nferred on Buonaparte
late on the evening of the 4th of October, consisted of 6000 men,
whom he immediately formed in military array in the quarter of
the Tuileries, prepared for the events of the following day, as
all the sections of Paris were under arms, and their battalions
under the command of generals and officers who had also been
in service. On this second undertaking fortune again proved
favourable to him, according to the proverb* of the ancient
Romans, whose bloody and murderous heroism he was anxious
to imitate. The thirty pieces of cannon which had been pre-
viously delivered up by the terrorists were still remaining near the
city {au camp de Sablons)*, the sections had just despatched some
of their people to take possession of them and bring them into
Paris, when Buonaparte's future brother-in-law, Murat, whom
he had sent for the same purpose with some of his light cavalry,
anticipated them and brought the cannon to the Tuileries, where
the patriots placed them in order of battle in the garden. As
the sections possessed no artillery, and Buonaparte was deter-
mined not to spare them, the whole affair was already decided
by this lucky movement* Moreover Danican and the other
leaders of the army of the sections were not in a condition to
compete in a regular engagement with such a man as Buona-
parte t; and the mixture of republicans, constitutionalists and

* Aodacea fortttDEJavat.

t lliese generals were men of very different parties and views. Count
Maulevrier and Lafond were ro}^alists of the old school ; Duhoux and Danican,
the commander^' in-chief, were republicans.

§ IV.] HISTORY OF THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 691

royalists of the old school, of Mrhom the officers and soldiers of
the sections consisted, could not hope for success in a collision
with regular troops and with the terrorists.

Early on the morning of the 5 th of October, the army of the
sections surrounded the quarter of the Tuileries and the conven-
tion; Buonaparte however had placed his artillery in such a
position as to enable him to rake the whole length of the ad-
vancing masses, and to direct his fire en icharpe on the columns
marching by the quays. For political and military reasons how-
ever, he waited for the attack, as the sections had now assumed
the offensive. The sections suffered themselves to be deceived,
and remained in a state of hesitation and negotiation in presence
of the troops of the convention on the 13th Yend^miaire till five
o'clock in the afternoon, when the general had completed all his
arrangements ; a shot was then fired, and a report was imme-
diately spread that Danican, the commander of the sectional
party, had given orders to fire, and Buonaparte immediately
opened a furious fire of grape-shot. No such event could occur
in Paris without a comedy and some theatrical pathos. Buona-
parte or Barras therefore with great clamour and ostentation
caused 800 guns to be conveyed to the hall of the convention^
as if the lives of the deputies were in danger, or as if the majority
of them were Romans, or even fit to bear arms. This drcum*
stance furnished a rich article for the newspapers, and an ad-
ditional piece of rhodomontade for the French historians of the
revolution.

Buonaparte's grape-shot and bayonets, used with superior
tactics, were by no means necessary for a contest in which only
800 men were engaged, who were heroes merely in words and
feathers! The victory was indeed bought with the blood of
many of the citizens, and a furious contest was maintained at the
church of St. Roch ; but who could number the fallen, or those
who were thrown headlong into the Seine ? On the following
day the victory was completed, the rule of the convention, of the
constitution and the annexed clauses confirmed, and three mili-
tary commissions appointed, who speedily swept off all the op«
ponents of the convention on whom they could seize. Tbit
sweeping military commission proved afterwards very advanta;*
geous for Buonaparte, and, according to English usage, formed a
precedent to excuse those military commissions which he found

592 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. If.

it necessary or expedient to appoint. Buonaparte was then
appointed commandant of Paris, first under the title of general
of the interior; he was by far too prudent however to retain the
appointment a moment longer than the necessity of the circum-
stances required. He carefully avoided all appearance of wishing
to prolong the dominion of the deputies of the convention, or of
being willing to share the hatred or contempt which they had
drawn down upon themselves. The services thus rendered by
him to the convention and his union with the widow of general
Alexander Beauhamais, afterwards secured him the supreme
command of the army of Italy at the very early age of twenty-
six.

The election of deputies to the new legislature was afterwards
immediately entered upon. Not less than one hundred and four
were named by the convention itself, in virtue of the privilege
retained in the annexed clauses, by which they were entitled to
fill up all the places to be provided for in consequence of double
elections. The convention, whose miserable political policy con-
sisted in alternately setting bounds to the power and influence
of one faction by the use of another, was now again favourable
to the former jacobins. Aubry, against whom Buonaparte always
felt great indignation, and other moderates experienced very un-
friendly treatment from the convention during the last days of
its existence ; the terrorists on the contrary were conspicuously
favoured. From the amnesty proclaimed especially for the sake
of the jacobins, all those were expressly excepted who had taken
any part in the scenes of Vend^miaire. The hostility felt
against the citizens, whom the majority of the convention, stained
with blood, disgrace or infamy, was anxious to destroy, was ex-
hibited in a most hateful form on the 3rd of Brumaire (25th of
October), only two days before the dissolution of the assembly.
On Tallien's motion, a supplemental article was added to the law
already mentioned, which excluded all the relatives of emigrants
from the enjoyment of any public offices, that in a similar manner
all those citizens should be excluded from office who had taken
part in the resistance against the clauses annexed to the constitu-
tion (qui auraient HgifU des arrites liberticides dans les assemblies
primaires ou Hector ales).

Public opinion was at that time hostile to the convention,
whose colossal legislation had thrown all things into confusion

§ IV.] HISTORY OP THE CONVENTION TILL OCT. 1795. 593

and contributed very ^little to a re-organization of the social
system*. The severity exercised against the most respectable
classes of the citizens who had attempted to snatch the sceptre
from the hands of the blood-stained deputies, on the 13th of
Vend^miaire, destroyed all confidence in the continuance of the
existing state of things ; so much so, that, according to Thibau-
deau, even Lanjuinais said openly, that the repubUc was unte-
nable. The convention had recourse to measures to maintain
their authority, which immediately recalled to mind the events
of 1793. This is proved by all the decrees issued by the con-
vention during the last weeks of its existence, and by the names
of the persons whom they selected for the new legislature, in those
cases of double elections in which they had reserved the power
to themselves. The selection of the five directors was also arti-
ficially directed towards persons who could not prove unfaithful
to the system which had been hitherto pursued by the conven-
tion. The Ust of those to be elected, which the council of the five
hundred caused to be presented to the council of ancients, con-
tained indeed, as the law prescribed, ten names for each director ;
but these were so cunningly selected, that none but the five who
were expressly put upon the list for the purpose could be chosen.
The individuals chosen for this important trust were Reubel,.
Barras, Lareveillere-L^peaux, Letoumeur, and Si^yes, to whom
however the circumstances seemed at first of so doubtful a cha-
racter that he refused to act, and with priestly hypocrisy endea-
voured to excuse his course : Camot was named in his stead*
No one had any confidence in the new government, however
favourable the circumstances were to its success ; for none of the
men above-named possessed the qualities, dignity, station, weight
with the people, connexion with the most important families of
the country, or distinguished merits, which a ruler ought to
possess.

* If reliance can be placed in the register compiled by Roadonneau, the
convention issued 8376 decrees. Beaolieu, vol. v. p. 238, states the number as
high as 11,210.

VOL. VI. 2 Q

594 FIFTH PBBIOD«— 8K0OND DIVISION. [OH.II.

b. HISTORY OF THE EVENTS OF THE WAR AND PEACE TILiI.
APRIL 1797-

1.— -LANDING IN THE BAT OF aUIBEBON<— CONCLUSION OF

PEACE.

After the fall of Lescure, IVElb^^ Bonchamp^ and at length
also of Larochejaquelin, the destractive civil war in La Vend^
had assumed a totally different character from its original one^
as we have already remarked* As long as Turreau was at
the head of the republicans, murder and destruction continued
to prevail on both sides, till in June 1791, Candaux was in-
structed to pursue a course of conciliatory measures. The foun-
dation laid by Canclaux was afterwards built upon by general
Hoche, aftier the overthrow and death of Robespierre. Hoche
was at that time commander-in-chief, with unlimited powera,
and the whole country from the Somme to the Loire was sub-
ject to his rule. His chief opponents were Stofflet and Cha-
rette, who were regarded on both sides of the Loire as the
chiefs among the opponents of the convention, although besides
these, there were some distinguished intriguers who were closely
connected with the counts d'Artois and Provence, who remained
in England at a distance from danger, and wished to guide the
whole. These persons had no desire for peace, as we are honestly
informed by the historian of the expedition, which was followed
by such disastrous results in the bay of Quiberon*. He ad-
mits moreover, that as early as January 1795, the people in La
Vend^, Maine, Poitou and Normandy were weary of the warf.
Notwithstanding this, the iotriguing count Puisaye, travelling
hither and thither between England and France, contrived not
only to stir the smouldering fire into a flame, but because he

* M^moires rar I'Exp^itioD de Quiberon, pr^c^d^ d*tine notice sar I'eoii-
gration de 1791, et sur lea trois campagnea dea ann^ 1792, 1793, 1794, par
Loaia Gabril de Villeneuve-Laroche-Barnaud, chef de bataillon, chevalier de
Tordre royal et militaire de St. Louia, &c. &c., un dea priaonniera ^du4>p^
au maaaacre de Quiberon. Paris, Le Normant, 1819 axMi 1832, vol. i, p, 246,
vol. ii. p. 374. It muat not however be auppoaed from the padsages aAer-
warda quoted, that we unconditionally rely on the authority of thia work.

t Vol. i. p. 184. " La guerre ae borna done, du c6t6 dea royaliatea, k dea
attaqnea de poatea, aouvent r^p^t^ea, toujoura impr^vuea et dana leaquelles la
parfaite connoiaaance du paya leur donnoit lea moyena de faire beaucoup de
mal anx r^publicaina ; cea aortea de combata leur coiitoient n^nmoina ^ eux-
mSmea i'^Iite de leura diviaiona ; ila eaauy^rent dana pluaieura occasiona des
pertea ai conaid^rablea, qu'eufin au moia de Janvier 1795 ila conaentirent a lue
euapension d'armes pour traiter de la paix."

§ IV.] QUIBKRON. 595

himself had not courage to abide the event, he appointed De-
Boteux de Cormartin his major-general, who remained behind
when he himself went to England. StofHet and Charette
therefore only accepted the peace, which they concluded in
the early months of the year 1795, under a silent reserve. As
early as May, Desoteux and other leaders of the royalists were
taken up and incarcerated, because they were engaged in con-
spiracies with the emigrants in England.

In December 1794, Carnot, by means of a report, which does
him the greatest honour, prevailed upon the convention to put
an end to the civil war by granting moderate conditions to the
royalists, and by insisting that their own representatives should
observe them, which the republicans had never yet done. He
succeeded in inducing them to issue a decree on the 2nd of De-
cember 1794, declaring that all Frenchmen on the coast from
Brest to Cherboui^, and in the interior of the country, who
should lay down their arms, should never afterwards be exposed
to any molestation or penalties in consequence of their partici-
pation in the insurrection. Their arms were to be deUvered up
at the town-houses in their several communes, &c. Simulta-
neously with this decree, Carnot also proposed and carried the
sending of eight deputies from the convention, distinguished by
the moderation of their views, who should watch over the execu-
tion of the decree and negotiate the terms and mode of concili-
ation on the spot. Charette and Stofflet however did not venture
to offer any decided resistance to the views and plans of the
count d'Artois ; they therefore regarded the peace merely as a
suspension of arms, although Charette at first appeared sincere
in its acceptance. The commissioners of the convention soon
came to an understanding with him, but a mere truce and not a
peace was at first concluded with Stofflet, who did not feel him-
self at Uberty to negotiate in the name of his party, as Charette
did. The negotiations with the whole body of the malcontents
in La Vendee and the former provinces of Maine, Brittany and
Normandy were opened in January at La Jaunaye, in the neigh-
bourhood of Nantes, where a peace was concluded for La Vendue
as far as Charette was ruler in the district. In this agreement
he promised to prevail upon the inhabitants of La Vendue to
submit to the laws of the republic, on condition of their receiving
2,000,000 of francs as a compensation for the destruction which
had been perpetrated in their territory, and the concession of the

2q2

596 FIFTH PRRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

free exercise of their religion. In order to provide for the wild
adventurers who served under him, and to exercise some species
of police dominion over the peasants^ Charette was to retain a
body of troops under his command^ to whom the name of territo*
rial guard was given. In this way Charette in fact continued to
remain in arms in the midst of peace.

StofHet, in the midst of the nobles of Maine, Poitou^ Nor-
mandy, &c., and surrounded by the intriguers and creatures of
the count d^Artois, was unable to act with the same freedom as
Charette. In these provinces Louis XVII. was the reigning
sovereign, or his name was used as such till the 8th of June
1795, when he died in Paris. This general therefore would only
accept of the peace of La Jaunaye as a truce. Hoche was dis-
satisfied with this, and a general congress of royalists was as-
sembled. More than a hundred and twenty leaders of royalist
bands met in La Mabilais, near Rennes, upon whom the de-
puties of the convention tried their eloquence in vain, and Stofflet
and Desoteux recommended peace, but only twenty-one of the
number were willing to accede to the terms of the peace of La
Jaunaye ; the others, and especially Frott^, who was in close con-
nexion with the emigrants in English pay, would hear of nothing
beyond a truce. On this result, Hoche, who commanded the
army of the west and of the ocean with unlimited authority,
adopted such serious measures that Stofflet was soon reduced
to extremities. In the revolution, Hoche had rapidly risen from
the rank of sergeant to that of general of a division, and in this
position had exhibited the same qualities in the twenty-fourth
year of his age by which Buonaparte was distinguished. He
combined administrative, political and diplomatic talents with
military capacities, was a handsome man, and had very skilfully
turned his influence with the ladies in La Vendue and Brittany
to the advancement of his political objects, whilst in the whole
of his conduct he proved himself to be a man of candid mind
and of elevated thoughts. He had signalized himself with the
army of the north and in the Vosges, when Wurmser was to be
driven out of Alsace, but had eventually fallen under the dis-
pleasure of St. Just. He first removed him fix>m the army,
afterwards caused him to be arrested, and would have had him
executed had not St. Jusfs government and that of his Mends
reached its termination in Thermidor. After Robespierre's
fall, Hoche received from the new committee of public wel*

§ IV.] QUIBERON, 597

fare the command of the whole district from the Somme to
the Loire^ and combined moderation^ prudence and good-will
towards the inhabitants of the country with the strictest disci-
pline and order in his army. When therefore the royalists re-
fused to accede to the conditions of the peace of La Jaunaye, as
offered by the deputies of the convention, he adopted his mea-
sures with so much ability, that StofHet was obliged to yield
submission to these conditions as early as the 20th of April.
Stofflet however, as well as Charette, was allowed to remain at
the head of a body of the so-called territorial guards. On the
4th of May he issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Anjou
and Upper Poitou, in which they were required no longer to
molest the republican troops. In all this, Hoche had been
obliged to give way to the deputies from the convention, for he
himself placed no reliance on the peace, and continued to make
vigorous preparations for war, because he knew that Stofflet,
Desoteux and Charette did not think themselves bound to ob-
serve any faith with the republicans. We have the same account
expressly given by one who was of the same opinions with him-
self*. Hoche's views led him into difficulties with the new
government, when he insisted upon making further preparations
for war, being well informed. by, his connexion with the ladies
of the real views of the royalist leaders and of the schemes of
the English cabinet. He was accused of entertaining a desire
of extending his power, and of retaining its exercise for an inde-
finite period ; after therefore having solemnly announced a ge-
neral pacification, the government even sent the greatest part of
the republican troops to the Rhine. Hoche's reputation became
proportionally greater, when it became evident in June how
justly he had calculated, and how admirably he had taken all
the necessaiy measures. In order to put an end to the system
of war hitherto carried on by the royalists, which consisted in

* M^moires, i. p. 187> " Ces deux traits (of La Jaunaye and La Mabi-
lais) n'etaient dans le fait que dee actes illusoires, sign6s de la part des royal-
istes sans autre intention que celle de d^toumer Torage pr6t k fondre sur leur
tSte et de gagner quelques mois de repos pour se preparer h de nouveaui com-
bats. Charette^ Stofflet, Desoteux lui-menie avoient cru pouvoir, sans blesser
les loix de I'honneur, dissimuler avec les envoy^s d'une autorit^ illegitime et
tyrannique." We must however add, that the author states in a note, that
there was a secret article which could not be fulfilled. He says : ** II paroit
certain, que par des articles secrets de ce traits, les commissaires de la con-
vention s'^toient engages k remettre entre les mains des chefs royalistes, dans
un d6lai de quatre mois, les augustes prisonniers du Temple et de proclamer k
Paris imm^diatement apr^s la restauration de la monarchic. "

598 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. li-

the surprise of single posts^ Heche had completely given up the
plan of placing his troops in cantonments^ and distributed the
army in a number of fortified camps situated in favourable posi-
tions, and thus rendered all such surprises impossible.

On the very same day on which Stofflet issued his proclama-
tion (May the 4th), the emperor Francis and the English entered
into a new agreement^ by virtue of which the English proposed
to make a diversion in favour of the emperor, who was hard^
pressed on the Rhine, by sending an expedition to La Vendfe
and aiding the Chouans. England was afraid that the emperor
also would give up the war, as the king of Prussia had pre-
viously done. The English ministry therefore offered the em*
peror new subsidies for the war, and proposed to bear the
whole expense of the expedition, which was to be undertaken by
the regiments of emigrants in English pay in combination witli
the royalists in Brittany. The English cared very little about
the evils to be inflicted upon the country or people in France,
and the object of the diversion was attained, whether it was suc-
cessful in its results or not. The correct principle of the En-
glish as a mercantile nation was, that in life every one must
look to his own interests, and that therefore if there was any
blame it must attach to the French, who allowed themselves to
be used as the instruments of accomplishing English objects.
The count d'Artois (Charles X.), then in Edinbuiigh, entered
into correspondence with Charette, his dear friend Riviere was
sent into La Vendue, and Puisaye conducted the conferences
with the ministers of England.

The afiairs of the English ministry, to which we shall come
in the following volume, were at that time in a very bad con-
dition, with the exception of the maintenance and increase of
the English superiority at sea. The unhappy marriage of the
prince of Wales with princess Caroline of Brunswick, which
was celebrated to please the king in the year 179^5 was one from
which no good could be expected by any one who was at all
acquainted with the princess's manner of Hfe at home. The
English in the meantime still maintained the dominion of the
sea ; they had taken possession of Toulon, destroyed the French
fleet and warlike stores in the harbour, and, when Holland fell^
inherited also the fleet of the only power which could prove at
all dangerous to their trade. During the reign of terror, lord
Howe drove the Brest fleet back into port, because Jean Bon de

§ IV.] QUIBBRON. 599

St. Andr^ deputy from the convention and a protestant dergj-
man, shamefidly fled s in the West Indies all the French islands
were captured, although Guadaloupe, St. Eustatius and St.
Lucie were retaken, and Dominica, Grenada and St. Vincent
alone remained iu the hands of the French. The undertaking of
the royalists in the bay of Quiberon, it is true, cost the English an
enormous sum of money ; it was however very well calculated for
its object, for England thus got rid of a great number of bur«
thenaome Frenchmen, made a very important diversion in favour
of Austria, without at Ae same time sacrificing English troops ;
and lord Bridport, who was cruising before Brest, on this occa-
sion gained a victory over Villaret Joyeuse (June the I6th), and
took two ships of the line ; a third escaped by accident.

The idea of a landing by the emigrants on the open coast of
Brittany in the bay of Quiberon at the end of June, just at the
time when the insurrection in Brittany had been nipped in the
bud, appeared so absurd, that the egotistical English ministry
was in consequence exposed to the most bitter reproaches. We
shall not imitate the French by detailing what they have said
respecting the English in connexion with this afiair ; we must
however admit, that a people in whose parliament language was
suffered to be used such as was really employed in the English
parliament after the defeat and death of so many thousands of
French, and a ministry whose leader could utter such sentiments,
deserved to be regarded as capable of any crime. When Pitt was
called to account for his conduct in the case of the Quiberon
expedition, he made the genuine Roman answer, that the blood of
barbarians alone (Anglic^ foreigners) had been shed on the oc-
casion. He said with great coolness, '' at least no English blood
has been shed;'' to which Sheridan promptly and justly replied,
that English honour however had flowed in streams.

Three small emigrant armies, supported by the English, were
to make an incursion into Brittany, whilst Sapinaud, Charette
and Stofflet were to renew the war in La Vendue. The first
division was to consist of emigrants in the English service,
which had been brought from Holland to England ; the second,
of those who had marched with the English from Holland to the
Weser; the third was to follow under the command of lord
Moira, and to be composed of English and those Frenchmen
who had remained in Guernsey and Jersey. The first division,
amounting to more than 4000 men, was recruited firom repub-

600 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [OH. II.

lican prisoners of war in England; that is, in other words^ was
composed of men who were to prove future deserters and traitors.
This division sailed from Portsmouth and Southampton on the
16th of June, under convoy of admiral Warren; it was accom-
panied by a great number of transports laden with arms and
ammunition, provisions and battering artillery ; the Elnglish cer-
tainly spared no cost; in addition to the* supplies of the troops
on board, they sent also a hundred thousand stand of arms and
clothing for 60,000 men. In the note we subjoin a list of all
those distinguished nobles and gentlemen who accompanied the
favourite of the count d'Artois, the cowardly and luxurious Pui-
saye, who from the very commencement was in a state of con-
stant quarrel with D'Hervilly, the second in command, who at
least showed himself to be brave*. The second division of emi-
grants was conveyed from Stade in English transports, and was
under the conmiand of a courageous and knightly leader in the
person of the count de Sombreuil, who had served with honour
in the last campaign under the Prussians. This division ori-
ginally consisted of 4000 men, but the minister, in order to
spare English blood, aflerwards kept behind the only two com-
plete regiments, in which the French served mixed with the
English, and were under the command of colonels Hardy and
Ramsay, so that only about 1500 men remained under Som-
breuil. The supplies of all kinds, which were sent with the
second division also, were immense, and the cost of tfiese two
expeditions to the Ebfi^lish has been estimated at an almost in-
credible sum, 20,000,000 of francs.

Stofflet, Sapinaud and Charette, the royalist leaders in La
Vendee, were now obliged, in consequence of a hint given them
by the count d'Artois through Riviere, again to summon their
forces in La Vendue to take up arms. Charette however at-

* " Les chefs de cette petite arm^e ^toient, Le comte de Puisaye, g^n^ral en
chef des Chouans de la Bretagne, le comte d'Hervilly, ancien colonel da rai-
ment de Rohan- Sou bise, nomm^ marshal general des logis et commandant
particulier des troupes r^gulieres k la solde de S.M.B. ; le chevalier de Tinti-
niac^ dont il a M dijk parl^ plus-haut, nomm^ au commandement de la divi-
sion des royalistes des C6tes du Nord ; le comte Dubois Berthelot, nomm^
aussi g^n^ral divisionnaire ; le comte de Vauban, ancien colonel da raiment
d'Orleans, infanterie .... ; le comte de Botherel, ancien procareur-syndic des
^tats de Bretagne, un des principaux chefs des Chouans et agent de la corre-
spondance des princes, qui au moment de la pacification ^toit repass^, comme
Tintiniac, en Angleterre. Le due de Levis, les marquis de Contades, de Bal-
leroi, de Saint Pierre, de la Moussaye, de Guebriant, les comtes de BrogUe, de
Roscoet, de la Moussaye, de la Houssaye et de Jumilhac.''

§iy.] QUIBBBON. 601

tempted in vain to force his way to Morbihan and the coast, at
the time in which the first division of the expedition was dis-
embarked. This took place on the 27th of June, altogether
against D'Hervilly's wish. Oh this occasion the English admiral
showed himself as blind and obstinate as Puisaye. The emi-
grants were disembarked on the small peninsula of Quiberon,
from which the bay receives its name. This peninsula is about
six miles long by a mile and a half broad, and connected with
the mainland by a narrow isthmus defended by fort Penthievre.
The attack upon the fort proved successful, the republican gar-
rison was partly incorporated with the royalists, whereby the
number of traitors and deserters already brought from England
with the army was increased to hundreds. When Hoche re-
ceived in Rennes the news of the landing, the royalists had
already pushed forward beyond the isthmus and been increased
by thousands of useless peasants and Chouans. Among these
people the English guns were distributed in a most absurdly
extravagant manner, and then the whole body remained for two
days perfectly stationary whilst Hoche was advancing.

Hoche immediately recovered all the points which had been
occupied in the interior, killed a great number of the emigrants
on the 3rd and 4th of July, and, after a new engagement on the
7th, shut up the whole body, together with the thousands of
Chouans by whom it had been joined, within the peninsula. At
this moment, whilst fort Penthievre was still in their hands and
the re-embarkation covered, they should have again put their
troops on board ; instead of which, relying upon the number of
their undisciplined force, they resolved to take the strong camp
of the republicans at St. Barbe, without the peninsula, by storm.
This attempt was made on the 16th, but instead of waiting for
the junction of the troops in the second division under Som-
breuU, they were suffered to remain on board till after the de-
feat, and only landed on the l7th, when they should have re-
embarked those which had been previously disembarked, and
who now became an easy conquest to the enemy. The attack
upon the republicans utterly failed, D^Hervilly was mortally
wounded, and the loss of the royalists, which Hoche in his
report to the convention estimates only at 300 men, according
to their own accounts was not less than from 1200 to 1500 men.
The rest were all exposed to certain death upon an open,
sandy peninsula, destitute of supplies, if fort Penthievre was

603 FIFTH PERIOD. — flBGOND DIVISION. [CH. II*

wrested out of their hands. Hoche would not haye attempted
to reduce the fort^ had not the deserters and a part of the gar-
rison, consisting of republican prisoners of war recruited in
London, facilitated the undertaking. The fort was taken by
storm on the night between the 20th and 21st of June, and
every one found in the place was cut down. Puisaye left his
people to their fate, and after having lived riotously in the army,
now sought for safety on board the fleet. On the 21st, 8om-
breuil made an attempt to relieve the fort, but was repulsed with
loss, and was anxious at least to save the remains of the troops,
but this too was impossible.

Sombreuil, with the remains of the two divisions, reached the
only part of the peninsula which was tenable ; this was called
the new fori I but he soon found that this position also, without
artillery, ammunition, or provisions, was quite incapable of being
maintained, and went to Hoche to treat for a capitulation. On
this point the accounts of the republicans and tiie royalists are
completely at variance ; the latter allege that a verbal capitula-
tion was agreed on, which the former deny. It is however quite
certain, that Hoche would have allowed the 10,000 souls still
remaining, consisting of women, children, Chouans and English^
to have been re^embarked, had he not been absolutely prevented
by TalUen and Blad, the two deputies from the convention. The
former, who, as the husband of the profligate Fontenay*Cabar-
rus, was then playing the moderate in Paris, again resumed the
character of the bloody fanatic at Quiberon which he had for-
merly played in Bordeaux. Without exposing himself to danger^
Hoche dare not keep his word ; he therefore sent the prisoners
to Auray, where they were shut up in a church. Some of them
met a miserable death, the mere dross escaped; but all the
former officers, nobles and priests were called before a court-
martial, and about 800 of them were executed*. Hoche himself
marched to St. Malo, because the third division of this English

* In an appendix to the ' M^moireSf' p. 330, there is the " Liste alpha-
b^tique des Imigr^ et autres royalistes rusill^s, tant k Vannes qu'a Auray,
apr^ la capitulation du comte de Sombreuil dans la preBqu'tle de Quiberon/'
To this he adds in a notet "Cette liste, imprim^ k Brest en 1814, a ^t^
dress^e sur un reiev^ trea-fidele des registres tenus par les commissions mili-
taires de Vannes et d'Auray $ s'il y a des erreurs de noms et de lieuz, elles
viennent de ces registres ( nous en arons rectifi^ quelquet-unes." He then
mentions as the ' premieres victimes ', " Mgr. T^v^que de Dol et les eccl^sias*
tiques de sa suite et le g^n^ral M. le comte de Sombreuil." This is followed
by the names and birthplaces of 71 1 others.

§ IV.] QVIBIBON. 608

expedition seemed destined for that port. This division however
was detained from August till October, and when it appeared on
this occasion at the right place, on the coast of La Vendue, there
was then nothing to be effected even there.

The count d'Artois himself had embarked on board an En-
glish fleet at the end of August, which landed him, together
with 7000 or 8000 emigrants and 4000 English, upon the island
of Dieu, which lies a few miles from the coast of La Vend^«
The cost of this expedition, which was under the command of
lord Moira, was also completely lost to the English ; the troops
and the prince were re-embarked on the I7th of November, be^
cause the only object of the English, a threatening diversion in
favour of Austria, had been effected. Some idea of the money
expended by England on these expeditions may be obtained
from Heche's report on the capture of fort Penthidvre. He
stated that he had found in the fort a considerable sum in cash,
70,000 complete stand of arms, together with clothing and stores
for 40,000 men, and that on the evening before this event, six
ships, which had arrived on the coast laden with rum, brandy
and provisions, had been seized. Hoche was anxious to pursue
a course precisely the reverse of that followed by the convention,
which caused the prisoners to be called before a court-martial
and condemned. Hoche, on the contrary, whilst he resorted to
the severest military measures against Charette and other chiefs,
sought to win the goodwill of the inhabitants of La Vend^ by
mildness and benevolence, and in this he was partly successful*
They began to be convinced that they were only used by the
English as means for the promotion of their own ends.

The recognition of the republic by some of the powers of
Europe was the first great political result of these victories
simultaneously gained over that portion of the royalists which
had hitherto contended with the greatest success against the re-
publicans, and over the great powers which had combined against
them. Of this recognition the grand-duke of Tuscany furnished
the first example, for he was only prevented from acknowledging
the republic as early as the end of 1792 by the threats of En-
gland ; he was however too weak, and was obliged to submit to
those hostilities which, in the spirit of brutality, the English
exercised against the French on his territories. This severity
ivas pushed so far, that they carried off com from the port of
Leghorn, merely because it was destined for Toulon ; and the

604 FIFTH FBBIOD.^BBCOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

French compelled the grand-duke to pay a compensation for the
oom^ when he sent councillor Carletti to Paris at the close of
November 1794, in order to conclude a peace ; and satisfaction
was no sooner given than the peace was concluded on the 13th
of February 17^^* Venice also sent an ambassador, and Naples
entered into correspondence with the republic through the French
ambassador in Venice and Genoa, whilst the pope dleged he had
never been at war with France* In Vienna also the government
would willingly have accepted the proposals of France, had not
the Austrians been influenced to adopt a different course by the
liberal supply of English money. In Germany and in Spain all
feelings of patriotism were utterly extinguished by egotism and
the petty cabals and intrigues of their courts.

The Prussians were still carrying on the war on the Rhine in
1794, and the diet of the empire had passed resolutions on the
5 th of May and the 14th of June, in which it undertook the
payment of the Prussian contingent, when, as has been already
observed, Kalkreuth and Hardenberg commenced their negotia-
tions with the plenipotentiaries of the government of terror.
What was commenced by them was carried forward by Mollen-
dorf*, who however employed persons of very ambiguous repu-
tation, such as Schmerz, a dealer in Creuznach, who was obliged
to remain on the frontiers of Switzerland, and the miserable
Bacher, at that time secretary to the French embassy in Switzer-
land. Bacher was the means of carrying on intrigues in Munich
also, through the instrumentality of Montgelas, the confidential
friend of the heirs of Charles Theodore and the duke of Deux
Ponts. The more honourable part of the negotiations with the
Germans was conducted by the marquis BarthSemy, who, since
the time of Dumourier, had been ambassador in Switzerland.
We pass over the weakness which Germany, torn by internal
selfishness, then displayed; the scandalous manner in which the
left bank of the Rhine was lost by the disgraceful capitulation
and surrender of Rheinfels to the French, when Hardenbeig
caused a cry for peace to be raised throughout the whole circle
of Franconia, and at the same time Saxony, Baden, the Bava-

* In the history of the events connected with these transactions, the author
has with due precaution made some use of " Fatfi, alors secretaire au comite
militaire de la convention nationale, ManutcrU de Pan trois (1794-1 795)»
contenant les premiers transactions des puissances de I'Europe avec la r^pub-
lique Fran9aise el le tableau des-derniers Iv^nemens du cabinet de cette ^poque.
1828."

§ IV.] CONCLUSION OF PBACB. 605

nan palatinate and Mayence sued for peace at the diet in Ratis-
bon, and the reasons why all this took place, in order not to
expose to the world the faults of our rulers, which had better
remain concealed* MbUendorf himself spoke with great open-
ness of the relation between the Prussians and Austrians. Some
deputies firom Baden begged Mollendorf, who was supposed to
have and to defend the same interests as those of the imperialists,
to grant them a safe convoy for their corn-waggons. His reply
was very characteristic : ^^ Of what use would it be, suppose I
should grant your request? the Austrian posts would not re-
spect it."

* Whilst intrigues were carried on, consultations held and pro-
tocols written in Vienna and Ratisbon according to traditionary
usage, whilst Thugut and CoUoredo hesitated whether they
should be obliged to prefer the French or the English, and
whilst Mallet du Pan, as occasion served, laughed at both parties,
by whom he was employed as a political sophist, in the same way
as Oenz was afterwards used, Haugwitz continued to spin the
threads of Hardenberg's especial Prussian polities. The preli-
minary articles, respecting which Schmerz and his associates held
conferences with Bacher and his companions, affected the left
bank of the Rhine and the compensation to be given to Prussia
for the insignificant loss with which it was threatened on the left
bank. The real question simply was, how to aggrandize Prussia
on the right bank of the river at the expense of the other states
of the empire. The first difficulty arose fix)m Prussia being re-
quired wholly to give up the imperial fortress of Mayence. At
the time in which MoUendorf was treating with Barth^Iemy
(Sept. 1794) this could not be done, because it was necessary
first to make sure of the last payment of the English subsidy
before completely throwing off the mask. The conduct of
Austria moreover was not in the least less selfish than that of
Prussia. In the same way as Prussia consented to sacrifice the
whole left bank of the Rhine in the preliminaries, and stretched
her covetous hands towards the possessions of other princes,
Austria indicated her readiness to cede the whole of Belgium^
provided the French would guarantee her compensation in Bava-
ria. Further, although Thugut and CoUoredo, at every sitting
of the cabinet council in Vienna, alleged the impossibility of any
longer carrying on the war, they were all at once of a different
opinion at the end of November. No wonder 1 Sir Morton

606 FIFTH P]6BIOD.^--8BOOND DIVISION. [OH. II.

Eden had in the meantime arrived in Vienna and purchased
Austria for 6^000>000/. sterlings \Fhich was paid under the name
of a loan.

The secret negotiations of Prussia became public in Novem-
ber. The diet in Ratisbon^ on the demand of Prussia, declared,
by 36 out of 57 voices, that it was prepared to n^otiate with
France under the mediation of Prussia. The preliminaries were
to be signed by major von Mayrink, whom MoUendorf had
already employed in these negotiations, whilst count von Golz,
who had been ambassador in Paris, was appointed to conduct
the negotiations for the peace itself/ The whole of the affiurs of
these vast and powerful states were in short managed like a
common intrigue. As early as the 5th of December the king
had put his signature to Golz's powers, but the negotiations were
carried on till the end of the month by Schmerz and major May-
rink alone with Barth^lemy, till they at length informed him at
Baden in Aargau, where he was at that time, that Oolz would
come to Basle on the 21st of December.

The instructions of the Prussian ambassador were drawn up
by Haugwitz, whose shamelessness and dishonesty of purpose
are conspicuous in every line. We shall merely quote two lines
from the second article, and can assure oxur readers that all the
rest is precisely of the same character. The minister is there
desired to make it clear to the French government, that the king
of Prussia was desirous of peace purely out of love for his people,
and for that reason also entertained favourable feelings towards
the French nation. This perhaps might be allowed to pass and
be excused by the usual forms of diplomatic language ; but it is
a thing unexampled, that Gobs should have been commissioned
to appeal as a confirmation of the fact above stated to the con-
duct of the Prussians during the war, and to say, '^ that to
mqfesty had given proof 9 qfthis good feeling during the coune qf
the warP This however was quite in accordance with other
parts of Haugwitz's conduct. When the committee of public
welfare absolutely refused to carry on the negotiations in Basle
and required them to be transferred to Paris, he sent Hamier,
the former secretary of the embassy, to Paris in the beginning
of January, where Cambac^res and Reubel at that time had the
particular management of diplomatic afiairs, in order to declare
to the committee of public welfare, that Prussia had no objection
to make against the stadtholder being driven out of HoUand,

§ IV«] C0N0LU8ION OP PKACE. 607

and the left bank of the Rhine conquered and occupied by the
French*

It contributed to hasten the conclusion of the peace in Baale^
that it accidentally happened in the following months^ that the
king of Prussia and the persons in power in Paris had the same
interest and zeal in the suppression of terrorism. The king
strongly insisted^ that if he was to conclude a peace^ the reign of
terror should cease. The thermidorians and former girondists
were anxious for the same thing. This desire gave rise to the
struggle respecting a new constitution, an account of which has
been given in the preceding paragraphs. In this contest the
leading men of the committee of public welfare, on the one hand^
reproached the king of Prussia, and on the other spurred on the
majority of the convention and of the French people to the an*
nihilation of the remnant of Robespierre's partisans, by alleging
that peace with Prussia and Spain, and also the possession of
Holland and the left bank of the Rhine, were bound up with the
acceptance of the new constitution. The Austrians had their
spies in Basle and around the city, and even one of their most
distinguished generals, Hotze of Ziirich, showed himself on this
occasion well- qualified for such an employment.

The negotiations were greatly impeded by Prussia being re-
quired immediately to evacuate Mayence, and as one of the
states of the empire, to remain neutral during the continuance of
the war with the empire ; especially however by the demand on
the part of Prussia to take under her wings a large portion of
North Germany, to be settled by a line of demarcation, as the
pledge of future spoil. Before the terms of the treaty were
settled, count Golz died on the 6th of February, and the terror-
ists in Paris again raised their heads ; a new delay arose, although
Harnier afterwards succeeded in bringing the negotiations to
such a point, that they were easily brought to a close. In the
beginning of March Hardenberg was appointed to complete the
arrangements, and from that time forward he continued to con-
duct the European and Prussian intrigues, together with Haug-
witz, and sometimes in opposition to him, because Hardenberg
was more inclined to England than his colleague. Some idea
may be formed of the melancholy condition in which things
were in Prussia and in Europe at that time, from the fact that
the English and their minister, lord Henry Spencer, who came
from Stockholm to Berlin expressly for that purpose, dared to

608 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

offer 100,000 dollars to the countess lichtenau for an audience^
and a very large sum to the king, if he would consent to decline
the peace. It is true indeed, that neither the mistress nor her
lover accepted the offer, but it is quite enough that any one
could believe in the possibility of such a thing ! 1 ! In the mean-
time Cambac^res, in the true spirit of a lawyer, used all his
sophistry, and prevailed upon the convention to allow him and
his committee of public welfare to agree upon secret articles with
Prussia. In this way the object of Prussia was completely at-
tained, and her participation in those parts of Germany destined
for division and plunder fully assured, although nothing was
expressly said at that time of the prince of Orange.

The determination of the line of demarcation by which Prussia
was to secure for herself the northern half of Germany as a com-
pensation for her un-German neutrality, leaving the southern
half to Austria, which was sold to the English cabinet and to the
French, caused some difficulties, because Hanover was included
within the line ; the scenes however which occurred in Paris on
the 31st of March and the 1st of April (1 1th and 12th of Ger-
minal) prompted the convention to hasten the conclusion of the
treaty. The peace was signed in Basle on the l7th of May, and
the point respecting the line of neutrality determined by a sub-
sequent agreement. By virtue of this convention, the circles of
Westphalia, Upper and Lower Saxony, Franconia, together with
the Upper Palatinate, Hesse-Cassel and Hesse-Darmstadt, and
that part of the circle of the Rhine which lies on both banks of
the Maine, were declared neutral. In this way Germany was
torn in pieces by Haugwitz and Hardenberg, Holland and the
hereditary stadtholder forsaken, Prussia disgraced for ever, and
a way made for Buonaparte's dominion.

Our readers will find the treaty itself in the sixth part of
Marten's Collection. We shall subjoin the secret articles in a
note, which are not in Marten, as far as they have accidentally
been made known to us^.

* In the first article, the king of Prussia binds himself to undertake no
hostile measures against Holland or any other country occupied by the French
troops. In the second, France promises compensation to Prussia in case she
succeeds in extending her frontiers to the Rhine. In the third, the French
agree not to extend Uieir military operations beyond the Prussian line of de-
marcation, and concede that Sayn, Altenkirchen and Bendorf be included
within the neutral districts ; further, they promise, that if they remain in pos*
session of the duchy of Deux Ponts, to pay the loan of 1,500,000 Prussian
dollars, lent by the king of Prussia to the duke, with 5,000,000 of francs.

§ IV.] CONCLUSION OF PEACE* 609

Somewhat previous to this time, Aranda had been brought to
the head of afikirs in Spain instead of Florida Blanca^ by the
queen, \rho completely ruled her husband, and who was herself
at a later period ruled by those favourites whom her sensuality
raised from the dust. The honourable and dignified bearing
maintained by Spain till the execution of Louis XVI., whilst all
the rest of monarchical Europe raised a general outcry against
the French, was ascribed to the influence of Aranda. The
queen however selected Don Manuel Godoy, a guardsman be*
longing to the lower nobility, for a second husband ; although he
was a man devoid of talents, patriotism, and knowledge, she re-
commended him to the favour of the simple-minded Charles IV.,
who neither knew nor suspected wherein his merits really con-
sisted ; she therefore raised him from place to place and from
honour to honour. This creature of the queen, who was de-
spised by all good Spaniards, was first made secretary of state, then
duke of Alcudia, and finally overthrew Aranda and became prime
minister, that is, absolute master of Spain. This miserable ^ar«
venUy who, like all of his kind, was as insolent in prosperity as he
was cowardly and despicable in danger, favoured a war with
France, which Aranda wished to avoid, but became terrified as soon
as the French under Dugommier appeared in the Pyrenees, pe-
netrated into Spain, and seized upon immense booty. Bour-
going, who was afterwards employed in the negotiations with
Spain, and knew the country better than the Spaniards them-
selves, found means of making it clear to Oodoy and the queen,
that they would find their best support in France against the
dislikes and enmities of the Spanish grandees. This had its
effect ; although the first attempts of the French to make peace,
and that also which proceeded from Dugommier, produced no
positive result.

At the same time as Golz received full powers, Bourgoing again
came to the frontiers of Spain, and induced the committee of
public welfare to write on the subject of the peace to two Spanish
ministers who were then in foreign countries, — Ocaritz, the last
ambassador in Paris, and Yriarte, who had been sent to Poland

Besides, it is expressly said in these secret articles^ that Haugwitz and Har-
denberg regarded it as possible to secure Hanover to Prussia. It is said,
** If Hanover should decline tJie neutrality guaranteed by Prussia, the latter
should be allowed to take possession of the former as a pledge." With respect
to Frankfort, the limit of the line of demarcation, it is said, " Austria as well
as the French shall be allowed to pass through the city, but not to place a
garrison in it."

VOL. VI. 2 R

610 FIFTH PBRIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

and was at that time in Vienna. Both letters came into the
hands of the duke of Alcudia^ who opened them. Ocaritz was in
France : had he received the commission to negotiate, he would
have been obliged to enter into communications with the deputies
of the convention who were with the army of the EY^^^^^> ^^
whom nothing was to be done ; Godoy therefore gave the com-
mission to Triarte, who was in Venice ; he immediately hastened
to Basle, and was brought into communication with Barthdemy
by Hardenberg. Hardenberg having previously informed Barthe-
lemy, the two parties first met each other at the house of the duca
de San Fermo. Count Lehrbach, who then and afterwards played
a part in every disgraceful affair, and the contemptible Elnglish
uitriguer Wickham, whose schemes Buonaparte afterwards un-
masked before all Europe, were both present, engaged in their
usual work of intrigue and espionage in Basle. These were the
men who corrupted and bribed Pichegru, by the instrumentality
of Fauche Borel, the Neufchatel bookseller, who was a ridiculous
enthusiast in the cause of the Bourbons, and has blessed the
world with some volumes of his memoirs.

These intriguers resorted to all their manifold arts to disturb
the negotiations with Spain ; at the same time it was found im-
possible to come to an understanding with Spain respecting a
condition on which the Spaniards insisted, — the liberation of
Louis Charles the dauphin, whom the royalists called Louis
XVII., and his sister, because at this moment the republicans
could not consent to the presence of a pretender in foreign
countries. This obstacle however was removed by the death of
the prince on the 8th of June 1795. The princess (afterwards
duchesse ffAngmUme) was then exchanged for the deputies
Camus, Quinette, Bancal, Lamarque, Drouet, and general Beur-
nonville, whom Dumourier had delivered up to the Austrians,
and Maret and S^monville, who had been taken prisoners also
by the Austrians.

The Spaniards were very tenderly spared in this treaty, be-
cause the French wished to make the duke of Alcudia a creature
of France, to bind him to their interests and make use of him in
their attempt to chain Spain completely to France, to employ
her ships against England, to unite the Spanish with the French
fleets, and to stop up one of the chief sources of EngHsh trade.
None of all these topics was at first m,entioned, but the conditions
of the peace signed at Basle on the 22Dd of July 1795 were of such
a character as induced Charles IV. to confer upon Alcudia the title

§IV.] HOLLAND. 611

of " Prince of Peace/^ and the people for some time afterwards
regarded him in consequence as the mainstay of the kingdom.
AU the conquests which France had made beyond the Pyrenees
were restored to Spain^ in return for which Spain ceded her
share of the island of St. Domingo to the French. The govern*-
ment of France was willing to admit of the mediation of Spain
in favour of Naples^ Parma^ Sardinia and the pope. Spain
further granted for the space of five years a supply of 100 An-
dalusian horses, 1000 sheep and 100 rams yearly.

The whole of Europe appeared at that time prostrate at the feet
of France : Holland was conquered ; Sweden sent baron von Staei
again as her ambassador to Paris ; Hesse- Cassel concluded a spe-
cial treaty with the republic in Basle on the 28th of August ; Ve-
nice instead of a resident sent one of her greatest sons in order to
give a strong testimony of devotedness to the republic ; Porttigal
alleged that she had never been at war with France : Naples
wished to open negotiations in order to escape Spanish mediation;
and even Sardinia showed herself not indisposed to negotiate.

2. HOLLAND. VITAR IN GERMANY IN THE YEAR 1795

TILL 1796.

At the close of the year the French had driven the German
armies beyond the Rhine, and all the strong places on the Rhine
were in their possession except Mayence ; they had pushed for-
ward between Clairfait^s army and the English, and on the one
side reduced the fortresses of Yenloo, Nimeguen and Maestricht,
and on the other, those of Crevecoeur and Herzogenbusch. The
English and Dutch were obliged to seek for refuge behind the
Waal and the Leek, and as early as December were able to
maintain only a very imperfect communication with the Au-
strian army of the Rhine under Clairfait. On the right wing
of Clairfaif s army Alvinzy commanded an auxiliary corps of
30,000 men, which had been assigned for the protection of the
Dutch, and was to have defended the Rhine from Duisbuig to
Panderen ; but it was late in December before the Dutch de-
clared themselves ready to supply this army with provisions. In
the meantime the French army was severely pressed by want,
the soldiers were without clothing or shoes, whilst the commis-
saries, contractors, bankers, trades-people, and all the harpies
who had been sent from Paris became immensely rich. Even
Pichegru was often reduced to the greatest straits for money,
because the generals of the republic were very anxiously watched

2r2

612 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. If.

and paid with assignats without value^ till Buonaparte created a
very different system in Italy^ squeezed the contractors and spe-
culators like sponges, and drove away all the commissaries.

Pichegru, under whom Moreau served, in an incursion into
the province of Holland, was able confidently to rely on the
correspondence carried on in all the cities and towns by the
Dutch patriots and democrats, who had been driven out of the
Netherlands by the Prussians in 1787- Whole companies of
Dutch served in the French army, and the patriotic party was
again alive in the provinces. Tlie most important man, who
afterwards played a very conspicuous part in the new republic of
Holland, was Daendels, formerly bui^omaster of Hattem, which
had been so grossly maltreated by the nobles of Gueldres and
the troops of the hereditary stadtholder in 1787* Daendels was
at this time a general in the French service, and commanded a
part of the hostile invading forces on their attempt to cross the
Waal on the 11th of December. The attempt failed and a sort
of mutual truce took place, because the weather, roads, the over-
flow of the rivers and waters effectually obstructed all military
operations till the setting in of a severe frost opened a way over
the morasses, rivers, moors and canals. No formal truce had
been agreed upon, because the negotiations for a cessation of
hostilities were not commenced in Pichegru's camp till the
symptoms of 6rost in the middle of December gave some hopes
of their being able to pursue the march. Camot, Dubois Craned
and their friends, the most violent democrats, urged this course,
because they wished to withdraw Holland entirely from the
power and influence of England, by infecting the population
with the virus of democracy. The commotions and discontent
which gave evidence of its existence in every province against
the ruling Orange party were their best allies. This feeling was
soon so openly and loudly expressed, that the hereditary stadt-
holder caused proposals to be made in Paris in November by the
states-general, which led to the negotiations in Herzogenbusch
for a cessation of hostilities, because these proposals were not un-
favourably received. As these negotiations could not be brought
to any final issue in the camp, Gerard Brantsen and Ocker Re-
pelaer, the former extraordinary ambassadors, travelled to Paris,
in order to negotiate in the name of the old aristocratic republic
with the committee of public safety of the new democratic one.

Even at this early period of the struggle the hereditary stadt-
holder was not disinclined to lay down his dignity for a time, in

§ lY.] HOLLAND. 613

order at least to save the old form of government and the friends
of the house of Orange, as Prussia had refused all aid to himself
and his wife, who was the king's sister; besides, the states-
general offered to recognise the French republic, and at fixed
times within a year to pay the sum of 200,000,000 of guilders*
The convention would hardly have rejected this offer, had not
news arrived in Paris at the very moment of the negotiation that
the bold undertaking of Pichegru's army, though suffering from
almost complete destitution, would undoubtedly be successful in
its invasion of Holland* If this undertaking was crowned with
success, then it would be very easy to clothe and arm one corps
of Frenchmen after another at the cost of the Dutch, and to
relieve the urgent pecuniary necessities of France by seizing
upon the savings of the frugal Dutch.

On the 20th of December the allies had not lost all hopes, partly
founded upon the state of the canals and marshes, of being able
to maintain their position ; the prince of Orange, Wallmoden, Al-
vinzy, and the English lieutenant-general Harcourt held a coun-
cil of war at Arnheim ; but on the 22nd a frost of unexampled
severity set in, 17° below zero (Reaumur), which changed land
and water into a mass as hard as stone. On the 27th Pichegru's
army commenced its march, and the lines of Breda, Oudenbosch
and Seevenbergen were taken ; and on the 29th Grave also fell,
which had been besieged for two months and a half. The su-
periority in number was so great, the dislike of the Dutch to
the English so decisive, and the disloyalty of all the provinces
so obvious, that the English began to send off their baggage
from the country in December. On the 5th of January 1795,
the English generals delivered a written paper to Wallmoden,
in which they declared that their troops were so exhausted as
no longer to be able to serve, and required the repose of winter-
quarters ; another council of war was however called on the 7th,
when the French were already threatening Rotterdam. The
two princes of the hereditary stadtholder. Fox and lord St.
Helens, generals Wallmoden, Alvinzy and Harcourt, met toge-
ther once more in Utrecht ; they soon perceived that the rapid
evacuation of the country was all that remained for them. When
it is stated, that at the decisive moment in which the question
turned upon the defence of the Waal and Leek, general Wall-
moden excused himself by saying that he did not know what he
ought to do, as he had still no answer from London, and that
four days afterwards he repeated the same excuse, it will be easy

614 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

to explain why the French were everywhere victorious and the
allies beaten. Whilst Wallmoden was waiting to hear what
was concluded in London^ Pichegru with a great part of the
army of the north crossed the Waal on the 9th of January, and
drove the English, who retired before him, over the Licck. Wall-
moden it is true wished to take up a position between Nimeguen
and Amheim, but he was attacked and obliged rapidly to retreat
further with the loss of all his iSeld equipage.

The Dutch troops now separated from the allies, and the pro-
vinces of Utrecht and Holland were not even willing to allow
them to march through. The English and Hanoverians were
badly received and quartered, the cold and want to which they
were exposed on the march was incredible, and the sufferings of
the English army on their retreat through Deventer, partly di-
rect towards Westphalia and partly through Leer in East Fries-
land, can only be compared to those to which Buonaparte's army
was subjected on the retreat from Russia. In January 1795, the
winter in respect to cold was completely Russian. Our readers
will find a detailed account of this destructive retreat in Por-
beck's work, or in an extract from a book in which all the
military operations are minutely detailed, which we entirely pass
over*. The author of this history at that very time had gone
from his native town to Leer and the difficult district whither the
English and Hanoverians came, and he can bear witness that the
men and horses of this select and admirably-appointed English
army, accustomed to all the conveniences of their own country,
may be justly compared to the appearance of Napoleon's heroes,
whom too the author saw marching round Frankfort in 1813 ; and
the road from the Leek to the Ems was strewed with the dead
bodies of men, with horses, baggage and arms, like the road to
Mayence after the battles of Leipzig and Hanau.

The hereditary stadtholder waited in vain for an answer from
his representatives in Paris ; Spaen de Biljoen, and Royer, pen-
sionary of Holland, who had been sent as commissioners from
the states-general to the government in Paris, found little atten-
tion, because Rotterdam and Utrecht were already in possession
of the French, and the establishment of a Batavian democratic
republic had been long prepared by Schimmelpennink, who from
that time forward played one of the chief characters in the Ne-

• Porbcck's description is contained in the second part of bis 'Critical
History of the Operations of the Combined English Arm^ for the Defence of
Holland in the years 1794 and 1795.' The extract will be found in the
'Austrian Military Journsd for 1831/ No. 4. vol. ii. p. I32« &c.

§ IV.] HOLLAND. 615

therlands. The hereditary stadtholder therefore went to the
assembly of the states-general on the 16th of January 1795, and
requested the assembly to permit his sons to withdraw from the
miUtary service ; he did not however lay down his own dignity
till he received news^ sent by Brantsen and Bepelaer from Paris^
and which reached him on the 17th in Scheveningen^ to the
effect that if the prince would abdicate, the convention would
allow everything to remain on the old footing. As the two de-
puties had written to him and to the states^general at the same
time^ he immediately set sail for England^ where he arrived on
the 20th. Pichegru entered Amsterdam on the 29th, and im-
mediately, in the name of the convention, caused the freedom
and independence of the new democratic republic of the United
Netherlands to be proclaimed. Moreover Pichegru was not
allowed to interfere in everything, as Buonaparte afterwards did
in Italy ; the deputies of the convention also first negotiated
with the states-general, although Schimmelpennink immediately
summoned a representative assembly, which was to change
everything in the following year, as soon as the alliance with
France was concluded.

A provisional government was first instituted, which in the
name of the states-general, now consisting wholly of patriots,
was to preserve and establish everything which the French
required, who therefore put off the establishment of the new
government till the conclusion of the treaty to be agreed upon
with the provisional government, as they could not expect to
come to a satisfactory arrangement so easily with the democrats
as with old and experienced men of business. The conven-
tion sent Beubel and Si^yes, who, as an experienced constitu-
tion-monger, might lend his aid in the construction of the new
Batavian republic. These deputies having conferred with Peter
Paulus, Lestevenon, Mathias Pons and Hubert, agreed upon a
treaty of alliance with the new republic, of whose nature and
import the convention had not the least idea, for Reubel and
Si^yes were there accused of having received money in order to
alleviate the severity of the conditions imposed, although in
reality the treaty was extremely oppressive. By virtue of this
treaty, signed on the 16th of May 1795, Venloo, the district of
Limburg, Maestricht, and Dutch Flanders or the south bank of
the Scheldt, were ceded ; a French garrison was to remain in
Vliessingen, the navigation of the Scheldt was declared to be free,
and the Meuse and the Rhine also were to be open to French

616 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

ships. Holland agreed to pay 100^000,000 of guilders for the
expense of the war, and bound herself in war-times to raise,
clothe and maintain an army of 25,000 French, to be com-
manded by a general of that nation ; that is, in other words,
what was called their independence was declared to be a mere
delusion, and the Dutch were compelled to pay the army which
kept them in obedience. And moreover, as these 25,000 men
were frequently changed, the fact was, that in the course of
several years, a great part of the French army was equipped and
maintained at Dutch cost.

Before this formal agreement was concluded, an immense
number of French, who were destitute of everything, had been
dispersed over the seven provinces, and there fed, clothed and
completely equipped for the field. Before Overyssel, Oroningen
and Friesland were wholly evacuated by the enemy, the French
as early as the end of January had completely overrun Holland,
Zealand, Dutch Brabant and Dutch Flanders, Gueldres and
Utrecht with their starving troops, and in February they took
possession of the three other provinces also. Whilst the allies
were suffering want in Miinster, one requisition followed another,
not only in single provinces, but in the whole republic, although
Pichegru maintained better discipline than the allies had done
before him. Among the allies, no one at last knew who was
really in command, as the English regarded and treated Wall-
moden, who was a haughty Hanoverian, as their servant. The
amount of the general requisitions demanded by the French was
estimated, even at this time, at 15,000,000 of guUders, without
reckoning the demands which were made in the single provinces,
or the expenses of the generals and officers, and the support and
payment of the separate regiments. The Dutch now experienced
what the Germans afterwards learned — how ruinous it is for a
people, either from laziness or love of gain, to leave itself wholly
without defence, or when its princes exclude the people like a
herd of sheep from all participation in the government.

The Dutch, who were thus exhausted by the French their new
friends, were at the same time robbed and plundered by their
old friends the English. They were robbed, because the here-
ditary stadtholder after his flight wrote to the various governors
in the East and West Indies, who had been appointed by him,
to receive the English into the respective colonies as protectors
against the French, that is, should regard the wolf as their
shepherd. The Dutch were plundered, because four ships of

^IV.] HOLLAND. 617

the line, six EaBt>Indiamen richly laden, and one hundred and
ten merchant ships, which at this moment were in English wa-
ters, were placed under embargo, seized upon and never returned.
This was highly unjust ; on the contrary, it was quite according
to general custom for the English in the following year to cap-
ture the Cape of Good Hope, Malacca, Ceylon, Essequibo,
Cochin, the Moluccas, Demerara, and Berbice, because the new
Batavian republic was then at war with England and subject to
France ; nothing now remained to the Dutch except Java. An
Indian fleet, valued at 10,000,000 of guilders, was also taken,
and admiral Lucas, who with three ships of the line and six fri-
gates had run into Saldanha Bay, was compelled by his Orange
crews to surrender them to the English.

Si^yes and Reubel contemplated with great joy the fearful de-
magogic confusion which Schimmelpennink and his provisional
government had given rise to by his representative assembly,
among a people devotedly attached to their own customs. In
consequence of this confusion, Sidy^s and his companions found
an opportunity, as early as the following year, of shining and
ruling in Holland as legislators and creators of constitutions and
government, a course which was often subsequently repeated.
At first the democrats recognised the French principle of the
sovereignty of the people and the rights of man as the primary
law; the dignity of stadtholder was for ever abolished; admiral
Kinsbergen and the grand pensionary van der Spiegel, who had
deserved so well of his country, were arrested, and together with
them count Bentinck Rhoone, with whom the author afterwards
enjoyed such a long and intimate acquaintance, that he is
convinced it must have been a great honour to him to have been
arrested with two such men as Kinsbergen and van der Spiegel.
It is true, none of the three were injured. Everything which
had been done in and since 1787 was declared null, the exiles
recalled, the magistrates changed, the officers of the civil de-
partments removed, and the Batavian and French colours every-
where hoisted.

The prosecution of the war by the French in Germany was
obstructed in the commencement of the year 1795 by causes of
very various kinds, among which may be reckoned Aubry's po-
sition at the head of the topographic cabinet, which was to
sketch the plan of the campaigns ; this was the same man who
was Buonaparte's opponent in the committee of public welfare.
Aubry having at length withdrawn on the 2nd of August,

618 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH» lU

Moreau was appointed commander-in-chief in Holland ; Jourdan
received the charge of the army of the Sambre and Meuse od the
Lower Rhine ; and Pichegru the command of the army of the
Rhine and Moselle, that is, of the whole of the troops from Ma-
yence to Basle. The siege of Mayence was at length seriously
commenced in the spring of 17^5, the city having been up till
this time merely closely invested. Luxemburg, after an eight
months' siege, was compelled to capitulate on the 7th of June
1795 to Hatry, general of division. Twelve thousand Austrians
under field-marshal Bender, with the exception of 400 emigrants
who were in their army, were allowed to withdraw immolested ;
800 pieces of heavy aitillery and the immense treasures belonging
to churches and convents, which had been conveyed for safety to
this supposed impregnable fortress, became the booty of the
French. The Prussian diplomatists had completely separated
the northern part of the German empire from the south, and the
latter was anxiously waiting, as it afterwards appeared, for a fa-
vourable opportunity of forsaking the cause and interests of their
country. Since 1795, Wiirtemberg and Baden were anxiously
seeking for the favour and grace of the French. The whole bar-
then of the German war fell upon the Austrians, who in the year
1795 fought with heroism and success for German honour, al-
though all hope had long since disappeared of being able to de-
liver the left bank of the Rhine, the possession of which Prussia
had evacuated to the French, even before Mayence was taken.

When it was at length known that the Bavarian palatinate
also was carrying on secret negotiations with the French, and
that the other German princes employed abundance of jurists
and diplomatists, but got on foot no armies, the Austrians began
to perceive that it was necessary, not to send princes but ge-
nerals into the field. In January and the following months
Clairfait was alone at the head of the army on the Lower Rhine,
whilst the duke of Saxe-Teschen commanded that of the Upper
Rhine, and there was something said of an imperial army which
was also to be placed under him. When however all hopes of
a considerable imperial army disappeared in the beginning of
April, the duke was obliged to retire. Clairfait was created a
field-marshal and received the supreme command of both the
armies of the Rhine. On the 20th of April Clairfait took the
command of the whole of the Austrian and imperial troops on
the Rhine, and in May he received orders to make a vigorous
effort at least to relieve Mayence, then seriously besieged, there

§ ly.] WAR IN GERMANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 619

being no longer any hope of saving Luxemburg. The grand
struggle therefore commenced in the district between the Maine
and the Nahe. On the Lower Rhine^ Jourdan remained quiet
till his army was strongly reinforced ; on the Upper Rhine^ the
plan of the imperialists of sending a corps under Cond^^ and an-
other under Wurmser through Switzerland into Franche Comt^^
was frustrated^ as well as the opposite plan of the French^ — ^that
Pichegru should march through Switzerland into the Breisgau.
When Pichegru afterwards ought to have penetrated into Ger-
many through Mannheim^ he had already become a traitor*.

The ministers of Charles Theodore were engaged in conspi-
racies with the French^ against their emperor, at the same time
that Pichegru was brought into connexion with Cond^, and
through him with the Austrians, by Fauche fiorel the bookseller,
and that they were forming their plans against the miserable go-
vernment then existing in Paris. In the beginning of July Obern-
dorf treacherously required of the Austrians to evacuate Mann-
heim, because the French threatened to annihilate the town by
a bombardment if that was not done. It had however been
specially agreed upon, when the trenches on the further side of
the Rhine were surrendered to the French, that Mannheim
should not be bombarded. The whole affair therefore was a

* The case was not precisely as it is represented in the following passage,
composed in the style of a courtier of Charles X. The report is nevertheless
sabstantially correct. The marquis d'Esquevilly, in his book entitled ' Lea
compagnies'du corps sous les ordres de S. A. S. Mgr. le prince de Cond^'
Tol, i. p. 401, writes as follows : " Le g^n^ral r^publicain Pichegru, com-
mandant I'arm^e du Haut-Rhin, et qui avoit toujours cherch^ les moyens

d'etre utile k la cause du roi, avoit eu pendant I'^t^ (1795) son quartier g^-
n^ral k Huningue. II avoit profit^ de son rapprochement avec le prince de
Cond^, qui, occupant Mulheim, n'^toit presque separ^ de lui que par le Rhin,
pour entrer en negociation. Son premier soin fut de faire connottre an prince
le d^sir et Tintention oii il ^toit, de lui donner des preuves de son zhle pour le
r^tablissement de la monarchic. Une correspondance suivie avoit eu lieu
pendant T^t^, des comroissaires respectifs en 6toient porteurs. Un des inter-
m^diaires les plus affides fut Montgaillard, dont le d^voihnent pour le roi et
la famille royale paroispait a cette ipoque n'avoir pas de homes. Pichegru,
dont le but ^toit de faire nattre dans son arm6e les sentimens royalistes qui
Tanimoient lui-mlme, avoit depuis plusieurs mois mod^r^ Timpatience du
prince de Cond^, en lui mandant, qu'il ne vouloit pas faire le second tome de
Lafayette et de Dumourier, ni rien hasarder sans avoir la certitude du succ^s.
II se trouvoit alors k Strasbourg, et la position du prince de Cond^ et de son
corps ^ Buhl pr^sentant la chance la plus favorable, Pichegru lui fit savoir,
qu'il etoit assur^ du succes de son plan, lequel consistoit dans les points sui-
vans : Faire passer le Rhin au prince de CondS et eon corps, UJoindre d VamUe
rSpublicaine, qui auroit arborS la cocarde blanche, proclami le roi, et marcher
aur Paris sous les ordres du prince de Conde, dont k corps edt formi Vavant^
garde de Varmee. Pichegru offroit les principaux g^neraux comme 6tages,
pour pr^venir touteesp^e dem^fiance surlapuret^deses intentions, &c.&c/'

620 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

mere intrigue carried on between Oberndorf, who was at that
time ruling minister in the Palatinate^ and the French^ who
occupied the Rhine trenches^ in the same manner as that be-
tween Pichegru and the prince of Cond^. Clairfait expressly
rejected the proposal on the 22nd of July. At the end of
July, when the French were threatening to make their attack^
the command of the Austrians was again divided. The main
army, consisting of Austrian and imperial troops, remained under
Clairfait, and the army of the Upper Rhine was placed under
Wurmser; in both of these experienced and tried men, Ger-
many placed confidence. The commencement of hostiUties upon
the right bank of the Rhine was delayed till the French made a
feint of passing over the Rhine at Breisach, in order to draw off
attention from Jourdan's army, which really crossed the river
above Diisseldorf on the 6th and 7th of September 1795. This
step was rendered possible by the conduct of Von Hompesch,
minister of the Bavarian palatinate, and lieutenant-general
Zettwitz, who, in defiance of all the representations of Uie im-
perial general, had surrendered Diisseldorf with 350 pieces of
cannon and 10,000 stand of arms to the French. After the pas-
sage of the river, the French violated the Prussian line of demar-
cation without any effort being made by the Prussians to pre-
vent the violation ; they then outflanked the imperial general and
compelled him to retire rapidly behind the Wipper. The retreat
was afiierwards continued on Clairfait's command till behind the
Lahn, because Jourdan had been no sooner successful in effecting
the passage of one part of his army at Urdingen, between Duis-
burg and Diisseldorf, than he brought over his whole army to
the right bank at different points between Cologne and Coblentz.
The Austrians were at length driven back, towards the 2l8t of
September, beyond the Maine, and on this day received the news
that Mannheim as well as Diisseldorf had been betrayed by the
Bavarians and was occupied by Pichegru.

Obemdorf, the Bavarian minister in Mannheim, allowed that
city to be surrendered to the French in the same manner as his
colleague Hompesch had surrendered Diisseldorf, and moreover
at the very moment in which Wurmser had despatched general
Quosdanowich from Freiburg, and was himself on the way to
their assistance with the main army. Quosdanowich was at
Heidelberg and Wiesloch, but changed his position to Hand-
schuchsheim and Dossenheim, when Pichegru sent two divisions
to take possession of Heidelberg. The central point of the battle.

§ IV.] WAR IN GERMANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 621

which was fought on the 24th of September, between the French
and Austrian armies, was the village of Handschuchsheim, near
Heidelberg. The contest remained long doubtful; at length
however the imperialists conquered. The reward of the victory
was the re-occupation of Heidelbei^ and Wiesloch, both of
which Quosdanowich had evacuated in order to take up a posi-
tion at Handschuchsheim, and to secure his communication with
Clairfait's divisions by the Bergstrasse. Pichegru's two divi-
sions were driven back to Seckenheim. Clairfait, who had has-
tened to Darmstadt, because Wurmser was still beyond Carls-
ruhe, immediately returned to the Maine as soon as he heard of
the favourable issue of the battle at Handschuchsheim.

From this moment, Wurmser, who had arrived with his army
in the palatinate, and Clairfait assumed the offensive, according
to the express commands which they had received from Vienna.
Clairfait was resolved at all hazards to relieve Mayence, and for
this purpose either to compel Jourdan to leave the Maine by
manoeuvres or to offer him battle ; and Wurmser was anxious
to wrest Mannheim, which was then fortified, and the Rhine
trenches, from the hands of the French. Neither of these could
be effected without a battle, and both Clairfait and Wurmser
therefore were desirous of bringing the French to action. For
this purpose Clairfait marched from Frankfort through Hochst,
where Jourdan was in position in the centre of the army of the
Moselle and Rhine. As the Austrian marshal with his army
approached the Nidda, he availed himself of the circumstance,
that the emperor had not acknowledged any Prussian line of
demarcation, or approved of any such system of neutrality as
that devised by Haugwitz; this he was entitled to do for a
double reason, because the French had paid no attention to this
Prussian agreement at Diisseldorf, although it was decided be-
tween the two parties by treaty. In their books therefore all
their complaints against the Austrians on this ground are com-
pletely unfounded. On the 12th Clairfait returned a con-
temptuous answer to the Prussian general prince von Hohenlohe,
informing him that a line of demarcation was a thing wholly
unknown to the emperor.

Jourdan having lost the advantage of the line of demarcation,
no decisive battle took place on the Nidda; for the repeated at-
tacks of the French on the village of Nidda, which Ues near the
mouth of the river of the same name, were repulsed, and the
council of war assembled in the French head-quarters at Hochst

622 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [C0* II.

did not deem it advisable to await the attack of the Austrians
advancing from the Taunus. On Jourdan's command the siege
of Mayence was first changed again into a blockade^ and the
army withdrawn to the left bank of the Rhine. On the 21st of
September^ Jourdan himself was in Cologne ; but he kept his
communications with Germany open by retaining possession
of Diisseldorf. Hompesch moreover had not more heinously
sinned against his country than the elector of Saxony^ who re-
called his 10^000 men from the Austrian army at the very mo-
ment in which Clairfait was marching on the Nidda ; yet to his
honour it must be said^ he left his contingent with the army of
the empire.

From the time of the battle of Handschuchsheim^ Wunnser
and Pichegru lay watching each other in the Middle Rhine. It
was a remarkable piece of good fortune for the Austrians at
that time that Pichegru did nothing more than was absolutely
necessary, in order not to rouse feelings of indignation against
himself among his own officers, of whom Dessaix was now one.
As to the Austrians, the negotiations of Wiirtemberg with the
French had already taken such a turn, that Pichegru when still
on the Upper Rhine was able to express the opinion that the
strong fortress of Kehl, occupied by Swabian troops, would be
surrendered to him through the mediation of Wiirtembuig.
The Swabian troops would in fact have left Wunnser precisely
at the decisive moment, had not Wunnser received orders from
Vienna to detain them by force. The Bavarian palatinate too
wished to remain neutral, which also by imperial command he
would not acknowledge. Notwithstanding all these difficulties,
the brave old general commenced acting on the offensive against
Pichegru at the same time that Clairfait marched against Jourdan
on the Nidda. As soon as news arrived on the 1 4th of October
of Jourdan's retreat from the Maine, Wurmser resolved to attack
Pichegru by storm in his centre at Mannheim.

From this time Wurmser as well as Clairfait wholly forsook
the proverbial caution and methodical tediousness of the Au-
strian generals, which they had been hitherto accustomed to
observe. The former resolved to attack Pichegru's centre; the
latter to take the French lines before Mayence by storm. Pi-
chegru's centre was in Mannheim; on the 18th of October there-
fore Wurmser formed his whole army in six columns for the
attack, and drove the French into the fortress with the loss of
2000 men. On the 19th he summoned the city. From the

4 IV.] WAR IN GERMANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 623

19th till the 30th, a very warm and vigorous contest was car-
ried on, till the Austrians, having obtained possession of the
Galgenberg) had made all the necessary preparations for bom-
barding the town. Pichegru now deemed it advisable to remove
all the rest of the troops to the left bank of the river, leaving
only a garrison of 10,000 in Mannheim and the Rhine trenches.
Count Obemdorf proved at this moment (31st October) shame-
less enough to propose to Wurmser, ^'That after the withdrawal
of the French {tvho were first to be driven out of the fortress by
immense efforts on the part of the Austrians), the protection of
the city should be left to the citizens or to the contingent of the
Bavarian palatinate, that no Austrian garrison should be left in
the fortress, and that it might be allowed to observe a perfect
neutraUty/' It was truly a stretch of courtesy in the emperor,
in answering such egotists, merely to direct Wurmser to pay no
attention whatever to such proposals.

A third summons having been sent to the city and refused by
general Montaigu, who commanded in the town, the batteries
were opened on the 12th of November. Clairfait's successful
operations against the besieging army before Mayence compelled
Pichegru to remove fuither from the Rhine and therefore facili-
tated the siege. When Pichegru at length had retired beyond the
Speyerbach, Montaigu himself caused the bridge of boats to be
removed, and therefore all communication with the left bank to
be completely broken off, because the Austrians had a number
of gun-boats on the river, under the command of colonel Wil-
liams. From this day (the 14th) the fire became more and
more dreadful ; as early as the ] 7th the French garrison began
to seek for some place of safety within and without the Lutheran
church, under the pillars of the trades-house and of the electoral
palace, which was afterwards partially destroyed, but at that time
still spared, because all the barracks had been already knocked
to pieces. The greater portion of the inhabitants took refuge
either in the cellars of their own dwellings, in the large cellar of
the palace, that of the theatre, or even in the vaults under the
church of the Jesuits.

The French commandant having refused to accede to a fourth
summons, sent on the 19th of November, a tremendous can-
nonade was commenced, for in the night between the 20th and
2l8t of November, 400 bombs were thrown into the town. The
wing of the palace, which is still in ruins, the ball-room, opera-
house, and cabinet of natural history, together with the tower^
&c., became a prey to the flames, and yet notwithstanding, the

624 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

French commandant persisted in his resolution not to surrender.
On the 22nd he at length found the town utterlj untenable^
and surrendered with the whole garrison prisoners of war. The
taking of Mannheim and the storming of the lines before Ma-
yence were unquestionably the most glorious deeds of the Au-
strians during the whole wan In Mannheim 9787 men^ among
whom was one general of division^ four brigadier-generals, and
410 officers, were made prisoners; 50,000 stand of small arms,
383 pieces of cannon, and large munitions of war fell into the
hands of the Austrians. It is stated in the Austrian reports,
that from the 20th of October till the 2lst of November, 21,105
heavy balls and shells were thrown into the city.

The reduction of Mannheim was especially promoted by an
attack made by Clairfait at the close of the month of October
on the left wing of Pichegru's army, which consisted of four
divisions, in which the latter suffered a severe defeat. When
Clairfait marched from Wiesbaden to attack the blockading
army before Mayence, the number of troops in the lines, in-
cluding some regiments of Jourdan's force, was estimated at
33,000 men on the 29th of October. Clairfait knew that the
weakest points of the enemy's lines were at Laubenheim and
Weissenau, or rather that they had there made a mistake in the
choice of their position ; he therefore directed his chief attack
against these points on the 29th, and was supported by colonel
Williams with his gun-boats on the river. The field-marshal
himself reached Weissenau at one o'clock in the morning. The
attack was followed by the most splendid success; the lines
were surmounted, 3000 French slain, 1633 taken prisoners, 138
pieces of artillery captured, and a vast booty in carriages, wag-
gons, furniture, provisions, balls, shells and small arms fell into
the hands of the Austrians. The French retreated on one side
to Griinstadt, and on the other from Bingen to Creuznach.
From this moment the whole bent of Clairfait's and Wurmser's
endeavours was to interrupt, and if possible, to cut off the com*
munication between Jourdan and Pichegru. The latter reaped
more glory by his wonderful ability in contending against a su-
perior force than others have done by splendid victories ; he was
not fortunate in the innumerable battles which occurred from the
10th till the 17th of November, for his five divisions during these
days lost about 8000 men, 22 pieces of artillery, and 100 ammuni-
tion-waggons ; he maintained himself however behind the Queich
and in his position at Germersheim, of the possibility of which be
was long in doubt, as appears from his letter to Jourdan.

§ IV.] WAR IN GEBMANT IN 1795 AND 1796* 625

Clairfait first drove Jourdan's army from the Rhine to the
Hundsriick, then behind the Moselle, and on the 16th of De-
cember general Nauendorf proposed to him to occupy Treves
and push forward into Luxemburg; he however regarded the
roads as too difficult, and wished besides to give his brave sol-
diers some rest after having been harassed by daily marches
and engagements for three months. AH sorts of reports were
spread and reasons assigned why the imperialists did not ad«
vance, but rather remained on the Rhine and afterwards con-
cluded a truce. General Marceau first proposed a truce on the
16th of December to general Kray^ who commanded the van»
Clairfait was at first desirous that this agreement should affect
only the districts on the Nahe, but he received a hint firom the
higher powers, and gave his consent, after Wurmser also had ac-
ceded to the truce on the 22nd of December. On the 26th, Latour
in Wurmser's name signed the stipulations of the truce, and on
the 27th Clairfait did the same through Kray. Kray negotiated
on behalf of the main army under Clairfait, and Marceau for
Jourdan's army of the Sambre and Meuse.

The truce was concluded for an indefinite period, on the con-
dition that ten days' notice was to be given on either side before
the commencement of new hostilities. This truce not merely
affected the left bank of the Rhine, but the right also, where the
French were victorious over the imperialists. With respect to
the right bank of the Rhine, eount Haddick and the French
general Collaud met and came to an understanding at Ehren*
breitstein, that the imperial advanced posts should be placed on
the left bank of the Sieg, and the French on the right bank of
the Wipper, and that the navigation of the Rhine should be free
from the mouth of the Sieg to Bacharach. The truce was con-
nected with the intrigues in Vienna, and partly with the plan
on which Pichegru had agreed with Conde, for the execution of
which he would have need of Wurmser's army on the Rhine.
Clairfait went to Vienna, because he hoped by his presence to
be able to put an end to the gross abuses of the usurers and
contractors, who were connected with the ministry and the ari-
stocracy in the army (viz. with general Wemeck and his asso-
ciates), and who carried on the most scandalous system of spe-
culation and fraud at the expense of the soldiers and the state,
as every one knew they did at that time. He soon discovered
that Thugut and his associates, the aristocracy and their par-
tisans, the empress and her creatures, were far more powerfiil

VOL. Vf . 2 s

626 FIFTH PBBIOB. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

than he. Being deeply ofiended he laid down his command^ but
was at the same time praised and honoured as the deliverer of
German honour, although from this period till his death in 1798,
he was never again allowed to serve a nation which stood parti-
cularly in need of the abiUty and services of such men as he.
His worthy pupil the archduke Charles was appointed for the
following year in his stead, and his praises were sounded by the
whole German nation, then betrayed by its princes ; he was their
last hope and resource ; he afterwards made shipwreck however
on the very same rocks on which his predecessor had struck,
like the emperor Joseph, he ran foul of all those hindrances and
obstructions which are the results of the Austrian principle,—
that nothing great can be effected, simply because it is in its
very nature new.

The French government (since October 1795 in the hands of
the directory) first recalled the commander-in*chief of the army
of the Rhine on the 18th of March 1796. Proofs poured in
upon the directory at that time from all quarters, that Pichegru
was a royalist ; that he had carried on, through mutual agents,
a correspondence with Cond^ and with Wickham, the English
minister in Switzerland, and was contemplating a bold undar--
taking against Paris. Cond^ had at length made the Austrian
commander acquainted with the afiair, and the conclusion of the
truce was no doubt contingent on this circumstance. Pich^ru
was too important, and the whole of the five directors, although
rulers of France, too insignificant to venture to call him to ac-
count, especially as there were no judicial proofs against him;
they therefore offered him the post of ambassador to Sweden,
which he declined, but resigned his command of the army of the
Rhine to his friend Moreau, and retired to his estate. From his
retirement in the country, he and some other generals, among
whom Willot is the best known, continued secretly to work in
favour of the Bourbons. He had purchased the former abbey
of Bellevaux with its dependent estates, and on the 1st of March
1797 9 when a new third was for the first time to be added to
the legislature, he with many other royalists was elected a mem*
ber of the council of the five hundred, which led to a new anti-
royalist revolution in Fructldor, or the commencement of Sep-
tember 1797* Whilst moreover royalism was reviving in the
south and south-east of France, it was completely extinguished
in the west by Hoche, by great mildness and kindness towards
those who were led astray by fanaticism, or a real attachment to

§ IV.] WAH IN GERMANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 62?

the old constitution and rigime, and by the greatest severity
against the leaders of the predatory bands which infested the
country* StofBet was pursued and taken prisoner : because he
was taken with arms in his hands^ he was tried by a court-mar-
tial, and shot on the 24th of February 1796 ; Charette met with
the same fate four weeks afterwards, and was executed on the
29th of March 1796.

During the following year the chief scene of the war was in
Italy, because there victories had been won and conquests made,
of which no one could have dreamt two years before. Jourdan's
army also had been considerably reinforced, in order to be in a
condition to make a new incursion from the north into Germany.
The imperial army too was abundantly provided during the
winter with all the necessary supplies, at least in as far as this
was not obstructed or curtidlled by the speculations of the ge-
nerals and colonels of regiments and those of the contractors.
A fortified camp was constructed at Mannheim, and the for-
tresses of Philippsburg, Mayence, Mannheim and Ehrenbreit-
stein were amply provisioned and garrisoned. The archduke
Charles, who undertook the command on the 9th of February,
established his head-quarters in Mayence, and after Buonaparte
had been five times victorious, was ordered to make a diversion
by an attack from the side of the Rhine. He declared the
truce at an end on the 21st of May, and hostilities therefore
commenced again in Germany on the 31st of the same month.

Jourdan had established a fearfully strong point in Diisseldorf,
which had been traitorously surrendered by Hompesch; he again
surrounded it with fortified lines and twenty batteries ; he went
from thence along the right bank of the Rhine, and compelled
the archduke to meet him on the Lahn. On the 15th of June
the archduke advanced to the Lahn to compel Jourdan either
to retire from that river or to accept the chances of a battle at
Wetzlar, where he wished to cross the river. Jourdan chose
the latter and was defeated, without however having suffered
any considerable loss, because the Austrians only captured six
pieces of cannon. The most important thing was, that his
whole army was obliged to retreat rapidly over the Rhine. On
the retreat Jourdan's rear-guard was reached and forced to an
engagement by the Austrians at the village of Eorcheip, on the
way from Altenkirchen to the Sieg. This victory was doubly
honourable to general Kray, because he was opposed by such a
general as Kleber. Kleber lost 3000 men and 700 were taken

2s2

628 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [gH» II*

prisoners, among \irhom were twenty-one officers. The French
indeed were driven back to Cologne ; but on the other hand
thej again took possession of the country from the Moselle to
Mayence, and restored the communication between the army of
the Sambre and Meuse and that of the Upper Rhine.

The French were indebted for the re-occupation of the left
bank of the Rhine neither to Jourdan nor Moreau, but wholly
to Buonaparte, whose victories in Italy called away the imperial
troops, and finally the best generals also, from the Rhine into
Lombardy, When Buonaparte was in possession of the whole
of Lombardy, and engaged in blockading Mantua, 25,000 men
from the army of the Rhine marched in the beginning of July,
partly through the Vorarlberg and partly by Cannstatt and Reuti
through the Tyrol into Italy, and Wurmser received orders to
confine himself to the defensive. He therefore passed from the
left bank of the Rhine to the right, and on the 17th of July took
his departure for Italy, in order to take the supreme command
instead of Beaulieu. The archduke Charles now became com-
mander-in-chief of the whole imperial armies on the Rhine, and
entrusted the command of Wurmscr's corps to Latour, who was
a general of artillery. The reason why the French were desirous
of alluring the archduke from the Rhine when they were unable
to force their way through at Wetzlar, and why Moreau appeared
as if he would attack Mannheim, became evident immediately
after Wurmscr's withdrawal. Moreau was anxious to pass the
Rhine at Strasburg, because he was well assured, from the neg-
otiations which had been long carried on, that as soon as he
made his appearance, the South German governments and diplo-
matists would not delay for an instant in imitating Prussia,
Hesse and Hanover, and preferring their own private advantage
to the well-being of their country.

On the 24th of June Moreau crossed the Rhine at Strasburg,
took the fortress of Kehl at the first assault, because the Swa-
bian troops made no resistance, and rapidly overran the whole
of Swabia, in order to cut off the archduke, who had quickly
turned round and left Wartensleben to observe Jourdan, from all
communications with Austria. This plan was the more likely
to succeed, as the grand-duchy of Baden, Wiirtemberg, and
finally the Bavarian palatinate were given up to the enemy, and
afterwards the whole circles of Swabia and Franconia begged for
peace after the example of the countries just named. On the
20th of July, the archduke, with a feeling of noble aversion, dis-

§ IV.] WAR IN GERMANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 629

armed all the Swabiaa troops in his army, to the reproach and
disgrace of their governments. Cowardly diplomatists prevailed
upon the German courts, according to agreements, to deliver
much more money, provisions, horses and materials of war of
all kinds to the enemy^s general in three months, than had been
given up for the use of the country during the whole course of
the war. Every French general and commissary squeezed every-
thing he could from the Germans. It would be regarded as in-
credible, were not the printed documents now before us, that the
king of Prussia and Haugwitz should avail themselves of the
very moment in which the emperor and his noble brother were
reduced to the greatest straits in their attempts to defend the
integrity and honour of the empire, to conclude a secret con-
vention with the hereditary enemy of the empire, and to enrich
the king and his brother-in-law at the cost of the other states
of Germany. This occurred at the very moment in which Nu-
remberg and other cities had been so long troubled and harassed
by Prussia, as had been previously done with Danzig, till they
renounced their independence.

In the convention* just mentioned, a promise was once more
given in the first article to assist the French to the recovery and
possession of the lefl bank of the Rhine; nay more, to procure
for them, or what was the same thing, for the Batavian republic,
a portion of the bishopric of Miinster and of the district of
Reckling^hausen, on condition that Prussia might take the re-
mainder. In the second article Prussia undertakes to mediate,
that other princes also may have some share in the spoil. In
the fourth, the Hessian houses are assured that very good care
will be taken of their interests, and the electoral dignity gua-
ranteed to Hesse -Cassel. In the fifth article, Wiirzburg, Bam-
berg and the electoral dignity are secured to the king's brother-
in-law, the prince of Orange. Did not the Prussian schemers
deserve to be deceived, as they were afterwards deceived by
Buonaparte and Talleyrand ? Did not those illustrious and in
other respects haughty families, of whose modes of thought and
bearing in the calamities of their country and their emperor we
have full details in Buonaparte's correspondence of that period f,

* This secret convention, concluded on the 5th of August 1796 (18th Ther-
midor of year 4) at Berlin, between his majesty the king of Prussia and the
French republic, will be found in the third volume of Posselt's ' European An-
nals for the year 1799/ p. 271.

t ' Ck>rre8pondance in^dite officielle et confidentielle de Napoleon Buona-
parte avec lea cours ^trang^res, lea princes, lea ministres et les g^n^raux Fran-

630 FIFTH PERIOD.— SECOND DIVISION. [CH« II.

— did they not deserve, on account of their servile spirit, to be
treated like slaves? Talleyrand, as well as Buonaparte, who at
that time guided the course of French politics from Italy, ad*
mirably availed themselves of the selfishness of the German
princes. We cannot therefore blame the archduke for regarding
the duke of Wiirtemberg's request of some protection for his
country as merely ironical, when his own was in such imminent
danger, and he recommended him to do something for himself.
The archduke had marched in all haste to Swabia, but proved
unfortunate in several skirmishes, and in a regular engagement
with Moreau at Rastatt, was beaten a second time on the 9th of
July at Ettlingen, and aflerwards used all possible expedition to
reach the Danube. Jourdan also now again made his appear-
ance and penetrated into Franconia. Extortion, robbery and
oppression knew no limits. Notwithstanding this, Baden and
Wiirtemberg despatched ambassadors to Paris and negotiated a
peace. The whole of Germany was laid under contribution, mil-
lions were extorted from the people, and still the princes, barons
and cities emulated each other in their humble and crouching
servility to please the French and to concede everything which
they desired. The whole circle of Franconia voluntarily sub-
mitted and paid 6,000,000 of florins, others four, others two, and
so forth. Jourdan at length pushed forward through Franconia
into the Upper Palatinate, and was approaching the Danube ;
Moreau followed the archduke Charles through Swabia, and on
the 21st of August had taken possession of Aug6burg, when the
archduke being suddenly reinforced by 15,000 admirable Hun-

^ais/ Paris, 18 19, vol. viii. p. 123. The minister Delacroix writes to Buona-
parte and Clarke, who had been sent to him to Italy, May 1797, "J'ai
I'bonnear de vous envoyer, citoyens g^n^raux, les extraits de la correspondance
qui penvent vous int^resser relativement k Timportante n^ociation dont vous
Ites charges. Vous y verrez que presque toute» les grandee maieons de VAUe-
magne d^rent qu'il soit prie dea arrangemena c<moenable8 tt la r^jtubUque wr lea
frontihee vers le Rhin ; que la cession de la rive gauche n'eprouvera point d'olir
aiacle serieux de leur part pourvu qu'ils soient dedommagies sur V autre rive par
des sScularisations Squivalentes, Quant k la Prusse elle parott un pea confuse
du r6le qu'elle a jou6 en r^clamant Tint^grit^ de Tempire Germanique, tandis
qu'elle est liee avec nous par une convention secrete qni suppose la cession k
la r^publique de toute la partie gauche, moyennant un d^dommagement pour
elle et pour le stathouder ^galement pris sur la rive droite du Rhin." On the
19th of August, when Talleyrand was already minister, he writes, "C'est
dans ce ayst^me de s^ularisation auquel 11 faut en venir t6t ou tard, et qui est
dejk consenti par la Prusse, la Hesse, Wiirtemberg et Bade, que I'empereor
trouvera k la fois un d^ommagement plus ample et un arrondissement plus
convenable k ses ^tats h^r^ditaires, que dans des provinces Italiennes agitto
par les principes de la democratic et qui d'ailleurs seraient pour sa maiaon des
sujetB perpetuels de guerre."

§ XV.] WAR IN GBBHANT IN l795 AND 1796. 631

garian grenadiers^ by an unexpected inarch, gave an entirely new
turn to the war.

The archduke had anticipated Moreau's arrival in Bavaria,
from the 1 2th till the 16th of August betaken himself from Do*
nauwerth to the right bank of the Danube, and received the rein-
forcements just mentioned, when he received intelligence that a
division of Jourdan's corps had ventured too far forward. Ber-
nadotte was at the head of this division, and proposed to push
forward to the Danube to open a communication between Jour-
dan's and Moreau's armies. He was only a few hours from
Ratisbon, when the archduke again suddenly crossed the Danube
at Ingolstadt on the 21st, on the two following days completely
routed Bemadotte's division, and compelled it to retreat rapidly
to Franconia, whither he followed in hot pursuit. Jourdan him-
self no sooner heard that his right wing was beaten and routed,
than he withdrew fit)m the Upper Palatinate. As the Austrians
continued uninterruptedly to advance, and to weaken his forces
by incessant skirmishes, he soon found his army beginning to
lose courage without having fought a decisive battle. The arch-
duke, who had again formed a junction with Wartensleben, whom
Jourdan drove before him, sent reinforcements to Latour to main-
tain the struggle with Moreau,took Bamberg, and by an attack upon
Wiirzburg compelled Jourdan to accept the chances of a battle.

The battle of Wiirzburg lasted from early in the morning till
four o'clock in the afternoon ; the loss of a few thousand prisoners
and about twenty pieces of cannon was however far less im-
portant than the complete dissolution of all order on the march
through the Spessart, which became a flight, and led to the di-
spersion of the whole army. Discipline was at an end,and the Ger-
man people, who had been so grossly maltreated and plundered,
and were of a very different mode of thinking from their cowardly
governments and officials, could not be restrained, as was also
the case in 1812. They rose en masse in all directions, and cut
off all the stragglers of the French army who fell in their way.
The means of transport were no longer to be had, because the
officers of the post no longer showed themselves more disposed
to please the French than the Germans, as they had previously
done. At length the people were organized as militia, particu-
larly by the activity of Wrede and Albini, the former of whom
was still at that time in the employment of the state. The gar-
risons of those fortresses which had been left in his rear by Jour-
dan afterwards marched out in military array and fell upon the

632 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II*

French. That part of the army which they had succeeded in
keeping together was arrested in its retreat at the bridge of Lim-
burg, lost 6000 men and forty pieces of cannon on the 16th of
September; the remnant was completely dispersed on the 20th
at Altenkirchen, E^renbreitstein was reUeved, and nothing now
remained in the hands of the French except the tSte duptmt at
Neuwied and the lines before Diisseldorf. Whilst the hands of
the people were fearfully bound up throughout the whole of Grer-
many and a variety of embassies were sent to Paris, the French
it is true raised a new army without delay under Beumonville^
which was afterwards placed under the orders of Hoche^ who
had again advanced to Wetzlar^ where he died ; but the fate of
Germany was at that time decided by Buonaparte's prelimina*
ries agreed to at Leoben.

Whilst the people in the Spessart, theOdenwald, on the Rhine,
Maine and Lahn rendered active assistance in annihilating the
French^ Moreau found his last support in Bavaria and Swabia,
in the conduct and fears of their cowardly governments and offi-
cials. From the 21st of August till the 6th of September, he
pushed forward on the one side as far as Munich, on the other
commenced the siege of Ingolstadt, and Charles Theodore
hastened eagerly to supply him with the money and provisions
which he bad denied to his German countrymen. On the 7th
of September he concluded a truce with Moreau for Bavaria,
and that part of the Palatinate on this side the Rhine, for which
his unfortunate subjects, oppressed in eveiy way by himself, his
mistresses, their sons and clients, by friend and enemy, were
obliged to pay in the following manner : — 10,000,000 of 6an<»
contribution, 3300 horses, 200,000 cwt. of com and the same
quantity of hay, 100,000 pairs of shoes, 10,000 pairs of boots,
30,000 ells of cloth, and twenty pictures from the galleries of
Munich and Diissddorf. The disgraceful character of this
treaty may be seen from the fact, that the basely betrayed and
brave Austrians had completely freed Bavaria and Swabia fiiom
the mischiefs of the plundering French since the 1 1th of Sep-
tember. On the day just mentioned, Frohlich and the prince of
Fiirstenberg defeated the French at Munich and took 1500 pri-
soners, Hotze was victorious at Ingolstadt, compelled the French
to raise the siege, and united all the imperial troops in that
neighbourhood. At the same time Petrasch undertook the com-
mand in Mannheim, pushed forward by Bruchsal to Wiirtem-
berg, and recovered the magazines and all that the predatoxy

§IV.] WAR IN 6EBHANY IN 1795 AND 1796. 633

generals and commissaries had heaped together. In Swabia
also^ as everywhere else, the peasants were infinitely more pa-
triotic and sounder-minded than the contemptible jurists and
diplomatists at whose mercy they were ; they rose animated with
the spirit of revenge and for the annihilation of the enemies of
their nation and empire ; Moreau therefore, pressed on all sides
by the imperialists, was no longer able to maintain himself even
in Ulm, to which he had removed his head-quarters on the 2l8t
of September. All the passes of the Black Forest leading to
Freibui^ or Kuhl were occupied ; the archduke Charles, having
left 36,000 men under Wemek between the Lahn and the Sieg,
and 5000 on the Maine under Sztarray, hastened with the re-
mainder of his army to the Upper Rhine to cut off Moreau^s
retreat to Hiiningen ; Moreau therefore obtained the renown of
a great general throughout the whole of Europe, for having sue*
ceeded in reaching his destination through Thengen, Stiihlingen,
along the Wutach, and through the Forest towns with his artil-
lery and baggage, and with a very inconsiderable loss in men.
He had previously defeated general Latour in a regular engage-
ment at Biberach on the 2nd of October. In this battle, besides
a great number slain, the Austrians lost 3500 prisoners and
eighteen pieces of cannon. If we compare this retreat, which
was a series of continual victories, with Jourdan's retreat, which
led to the complete dispersion of his army, it will be seen that
Buonaparte^s ironical remarks on Moreau^s reputation, as founded
on this retreat, are wholly without foundation.

The right bank of the Rhine, from Neuwied to Breisach, was
now completely freed from the French; it has however been
alleged as a reproach against the archduke Charles, that he suf-
fered two months afterwards to elapse without besieging the
bridge-trenches at Hiiningen and the insignificant fortress of
Kehl ; but he, as well as the French, then saw that the fate of the
war would be decided in Italy. Kehl having capitulated on the
9th of January 1797^ and Hiiningen on the 1st of February, a
truce was concluded on the Rhine on conditions of three days'
notice of its termination on either side. Immediately afterwards
the archduke Charles was called to Austria in order to save Vi-
enna, which was at that time threatened by Buonaparte.

634 riFTH PBBIOD.— BBOOND DrVISION. [OB. II.

3« SUMMARY VIEW OF THE VI0T0RIOU8 UNDERTAKINGS OF
THE FRENCH IN ITALY, WHICH LED TO THE PRELIMI-
NARIES OF LEOBBN AND TO A PEACE.

The events of the year 1797 ought not to be received into this
volume of our work, because we are desirous of reserving every-
thing which relates to Buonaparte to the concluding volume ; we
must therefore bring the present part to a conclusion with the
termination of the war 90 far as ii regarded the Oerman empire*
This termination became first certain by the preliminaries of
Leoben ; we believe therefore that we must still refer to the vic-
tory of the French which compelled the emperor to relinquish
the English alliance, his only remaining true and faithful support
in the beginning of the year 1797* For this reason, we shall
very briefly enumerate Buonaparte's warlike undertakings in
Italy in the year 1796 and till April 1797> and the political
changes which were their consequences, reserving the more mi-
nute explanation of the single events and circumstances and the
narrative of ail the steps of the subsequent emperor of the French
for the succeeding and last volume of the work.

The committee of public welfare had already caused Savoy to
be incorporated with France under the name of the department
of Mont Blanc ; but the French neither crossed the Alps in 1794
nor 1795, although both the army of the Alps and that of Italy
had advanced to the frontiers of Piedmont. The two armies
were first imited under Kellermann in the' year 1795, but as soon
as the peace with Spain and the success of their arms in Ger-
many rendered it possible to send considerable reinforcements,
they were again separated and placed under two commanders.
Kellermann was entrusted with tiie command of the army of the
Alps, whilst Scherer was placed at the head of the army of Italy.
After the peace with Spain, the latter army was reinforced by the
addition of the whole corps which had been engaged in the east-
em Pyrenees and by other troops, so that in October it was
computed to amount to 50,000 men ; even Clausewitz estimates
it at 43,000. Scherer was addicted to intemperance, suffered
bad discipline, and was not in a condition to put any check to
the frauds of the contractors and commissaries ; Massena how-
ever was his second in command, and defeated the Austrians
on the 22nd of November at Loano. On this occasion general
Devins lost 5000 men, forty-eight pieces of cannon and some
stores. He was then recalled, and Beaulieu, seventy-one years
of age, was appointed in his stead commander-in-chief of that

§IV.] ITALY. 635

corps of the Austrians which^ in connexion with the Piedmontese
under CoUi^ was opposed to the French. The latter also had
ahready suffered a defeat from the division under Serrurier^ be-
fore the directory named a new commander-in-chief, and been
driven back as fiur as Ceva.

The directory owed its existence to Buonaparte: with that
skill peculiar to him, and with the quick perception of a states*
man bom to be a ruler, he had oi^anized the safeguard of the di-
rectory and councils, consisting of regular troops, had set bounds
to royalism, and on this account alone received the appointment
of general of the interior ; the directory owed him an act of gra-
titude. Among tlie directors, Camot (at that time, but not af-
terwards) favoured Buonaparte, because he expected great deeds
from him; Barras, because he had known him ever since the
reUef of Toulon and through the scenes of the 13th of Vendd-
miaire ; perhaps, also, because he had married Josephine Beau-
hamais ; he was therefore appointed commander-in-chief of the
army of Italy in the twenty-seventh year of his age, and on the
23rd of March 1796 entered Nice, where the head-quarters of
the army then were*

A man of decision like Buonaparte must necessarily commence
with a decisive step, even though he had not been obliged to
seek for horses, provisions, clothing and pay for his soldiers in
the plains of Italy. He therefore encouraged and consoled his
men with the hopes of an immense booty, when he started from
the Riviera to storm the ridge of the Apennines and to separate
the Piedmontese and Austrians from each other. At the same
time he excited them by that species of eloquence bordering on
rhodomontade, which rouses and afiects the warlike and vain
heart of every Frenchman, when these phrases are repeated in
books or in the rostrum. Both the French and Austro-Pied-
montese armies put themselves in motion almost at the same
time to attack each other. For this purpose Beaulieu, in April,
had ordered Argenteau to occupy the points of Dego, Millesimo
and Montenotte. The storming, maintaining, capture and re-
capture of these positions formed the theatre of those engage-
ments, between the 10th and 15th of April, which were decisive
of Buonaparte's glory, the destiny of all Italy and the fate of
Germany. Buonaparte^s chief aim was to defeat general Pro-
vera, who was to maintain the communication between the Sar-
dinian army under Colli and the Austrian forces under Beaulieu,
and then to push forward between the two armies. Ai^enteau,

636 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

whom Beaulieu had sent forward, was first beaten at Montenotte
on the 12th of April; on the 13th CollPs left wing was driven
from its positions at Millesimo, and Provera compelled to throw
himself into the castle of Cossaria, where he remained closely
blockaded and was afterwards taken prisoner. On the l4th and
15th the Austrians at Dego were completely repulsed^ and Buo-
naparte enabled to direct the whole of his forces against Colli's
Sardinian army. The loss of the Austrians in these various en-
gagements is estimated by Jomini at one-third of their whole force,
that is, 10,000 men ; they lost also many pieces of cannon.

It has been made a reproach to Buonaparte^s militiry skill,
that he gave Beaulieu time to unite his army at Aqui and
turned his whole force against Colli, who was posted at Ceva;
the political calculation was perfectly correct, because he knew
that the king of Sardinia and his cardinal adviser would begin
to tremble in the same manner as the German princes had been
terrified into cowardly submission, and would act precisely as
they did. Such proved to be the case ; Colli was unfortunate
in the engagements at Mondovi on the 23rd, and saw that he
was no longer to expect any support from Beaulieu*. The con-'
sequence was, that the whole of Italy soon became full of mal-
contents, the people of Piedmont longed to be free from military
tyranny, and those of Lombardy to be rid of foreign dominion.
Buonaparte, as a Corsican and (as was believed) a friend of the
revolution, had already all the threads of the conspiracies in his
hands ; he terrified the cowardly tyrants, and Colli was obliged
to propose a truce. This truce was signed as early as the 23rd of
April, and according to the way in which treaties of peace were
then usually regarded in Paris and weaker allies treated, it was
no sooner changed into a peace on the 15th of May, than the
king and his country were delivered into the hands of the French f.

* Botta is an excellent authority on this subject, particularly in relation to
the boasting of Buonaparte and the French. In his ' Storia d' Italia dal 1789
al 1814/ Capo lago, presso Mendrisio, 1833, vol. i. p. 337, he says, in re-
ference to the relation of Beaulieu and Colli, " Ne Beaulieu si curd molto di
Btarsene unito a Colli, ne Colli a Beaulieu, perch^ ed aicuni semi di discordta
gii erano primo dei racontati fatti tr& loro sorti, e, come suole accadere, nelle
disgrazie, gli Austriaci accusavano i Piemontesi di non avergli comera debito
ajutati, i Piemontesi davano il medesimo carico a gli AuBtriaci.'' As to the
truce, Botta says precisely the same of his Victor Amadeus III. which we say
of all the German princes of the year 1796, pp. 352, 353, " Stupiranno i
posteri che intero il stato suo in ItaUa, intero le fortezze, intero Tesercito ad
un primo romoreggiare di Francesi si sia sbigottito nel animo e dato subita-
mente in preda a coloro che con una pace a lui pregiudiziale non altro fine
avevano, se non di constringere V Austria ad una pace utile a loro."

t This will be rendered most obvious by giving the substance of the peace

§IV.] ITALY. 6S7

The conditions of the treaty secured Buonaparte's rear^ gave him
an open road through Piedmont^ and rendered it impossible for
the Austrians to defend the open plains of Lombardy against the
French intoxicated with victory^ against their able generals and
their commander-in-chief, who was equally great in the field, the
cabinet and administration.

Buonaparte, as he had given reason to suppose by a condi-
tion of the treaty, did not afterwards pass the Po at Vdenza, but
farther down at Piacenza, in order to overtake the Austrians on
the Adda. This gave rise to the passage of the bridge of Lodi,
which is narrated with such adventurous and romantic interest
by the French in all their reports, and which still remains sur«>
prising and wonderful enough, although much that is stated by
the French on the subject is a well-established falsehood*, and
it still continues to be repeated by their writers in spite of the
clearest refutations. Beaulieu did not wish to detain the French
at the bridge of Lodi more than twenty-four hours, further there
were only fourteen cannon placed on the bridge, and only 7000
men left behind to defend and obstruct the passage; no battle
therefore took place, although Clausewitz himself admits, that it
was incomprehensible to him, how this bridge, 300 paces long,

of May 1796 in Botta's words, without mentioning a whole series of secret
articles as well as public conditions, payments and extortions of all kinds.
Properly speaking, Turin alone remained to the king. It is said, p. 357,
" Furono le condizioni principali : cedesse il re alia republica la possessione
del ducato di Savoja e della contea di Nizza ; oltre le fortezze di Cuneo, C^va
e Tortona, mettesse in potest^ dei republicani Icilia, V Assietta, Susa ; la Bm-
netta, Castel Delfino ed Alessandria, ed in luogo suo, ed a piacere del geuerale
di Francia, Valenza ; smantellassersi a spese del re Susa e la Bninetta, ne al-
cuna nuova fortezza potesse rizzare per quella frontiera ; non desse passo ai
nemici della republica; non soffrisse ne suoi stati alcun fuoruscito o bandito
Francese ; restituissersi da ambe le parti i prigioneri fatti in guerra ; abolis-
sersi ed in perpetua dimenticanza roandassersi i processi fatti ai querelati per
opinioni politiche ; a liberty si restituissero e dei beni loro posti al fischo si
redintegrassero ; avessero facolt& durante il loro quieto vivere, o di starsene
senza molestia negli stati regii, o di trasferirsi \k dove piii lor piacesse. Dei

' ingiuria faiia i

* This may appear severely expressed ; explanations of particular points
however do not consist with the brief report which we here give. We shall
merely refer to the judgement of a military man, with the best means of form-
ing a correct opinion. In the posthumous work of general Carl von Clause-
witz, ' Feldzug von 1796,' Berlin 1833, it is said, p. 95, "Buonaparte in his
report intentionally calls this contest for a single bridge, — ^this collision with a
single column, the battle qf Lodi, adorned wi& the trophies of twenty cannon
and several thousand prisoners. Under this form it has traversed all Europe,
in one place exciting joy and happiness, in another dread and fear, and in a
third anxiety and caution."

638 FIFTH PERIOD.-^— SECOND DIVISION. [CH. lU

could be taken by stonn. This however really happened, and the
Austrian army was greatly discouraged by the result. Being con-*
stantly and hotly pursued^ it gradually dispersed, or partly took
refuge in the Tyrol and partly under the cannon of the fortress of
Mantua. Crema, Pizzighetone, Pavia, and finally Milan also were
occupied, and Buonaparte made his entry into the last-mentioned
city on the 14th of May. Immense demands and contributions
were made and required to provide for the wants of the army and
to satisfy the avidity of the avaricious generals ; and the direc-
tory as well as Moreau's army was soon relieved from their ne-
cessities by the sums extorted from the Italians*. Academicians
came to Italy, and artists, declaiming upon the arts, and pre-
pared themselves to plunder its classic soil. The Parisians and
their salons spoke of nothing but Buonaparte and the trophies
of all descriptions which he sent to Paris. The disturbances
which the indolent Italians occasionally excited were easily re-
pressed by military force, and were profited by in order to prac*
tise new extortions and to change old institutions.

Because a Spanish prince was reigning in Parma, Buonaparte
wished to assume the appearance of sparing him on account of
the Spanish prince of peace and the queen, as the directory even
at that time had begun to entertain the idea of employing Spain
against England ; he was therefore only robbed of his works of
art and treasures. Moreover the duke of Parma and the duke
of Modena were kept completely in the power of their enemies,
because the French general merely granted them a truce and
not a peace ; for this boon, these two dukes, like the German
princes, voluntarily resigned the millions which had been long
extorted from their subjects and remained buried in their trea-
suries and vaults. In this way the misers became the prey of
the covetous. The Austrians were driven completely out of
Italy and into the fastnesses of the Tyrol, and no hesitation for
a moment prevented the French from depriving the Venetians

* We cannot here give the whole in detail, but merely a sample, without
mentioning the vast requisitions made in the products of the earth, or the
plunder of the churches, or the twenty- one boxes of plate taken from Lodi,
Milan and Bologna. Lorn hardy paid 26,000,000 of ft-ancs, Modena 10,000,000,
the factors of the empire 200,000, Mantua, when at length reduced, 800,000,
Massa and Carrara 600,000, Parma and Piacenza 20,000,000, the pope
36,000,000, Bologna and Ferrara 3,700,000, the warehouses of English goods
8,000,000. Buonaparte declared to his soldiers, in 1797, who had extorted
the money, that he had provided for the whole expenses of the army, ge-
nerals, officers and soldiers, for eleven months, and besides sent 30,000,000 to
France, without however saying at the same time how well he provided for
himself.

§ IV.] ITALY. 639

of Verona under a feigned excuse, and Brescia afterwards with-
out any pretence at all, although Venice was a republic and an
intimate ally of France. Beaulieu, before leaving Italy, rein-
forced the garrison of Mantua to 13,000 men $ but as he had
previously done in the Apennines and Alps, he frittered away his
army by making numerous divisions, because he wished to pro-
tect and guard, as if by a cordon, all the accesses and passes to the
Tjrrol. Buonaparte, on the contrary, declares it to be the charac-
teristic mark of a good general to understand how to direct a su-
perior force against the enemy at a given time and in a given place.
The citadel of Milan maintained itself till the 27th of June>
and Buonaparte was on a visit in Florence at the time in which
the news of the surrender arrived. He had at that time shown
his forbearance to the Neapolitans, because they lay at too great
a distance to be conveniently accessible to his armies ; and on
the 23rd of June he conceded a truce to the pope, which the
latter was to purchase by the cession of the legations of Reggio,
Bologna and Ferrara, the payment of 15,500,000 francs, 100 of
his best works of art, and 500 manuscripts. The shrine of Lo-
retto was also plundered, but the priests had long before sub*
stituted false diamonds for the genuine ones. Augereau next
sent a swarm of his plundering army into the territory of the
duke of Tuscany, who was on friendly relations with the French,
in order to carry off English wares from the port of Leghorn,
amounting to 10,000,000 or 12,000,000 of francs in value. The
siege of Mantua was being prosecuted with great zeal, when
news arrived that Austria had fitted out a new army in order to
relieve the city. After his retreat from Italy, Beaulieu suffered
a defeat in the Italian Tjrrol, and finally withdrew with his army
to Caliano between Roveredo and Trent, where he was opposed
by Massena at the head of 12,000 men. In June the temporary
command was entrusted to Melas, till Wurmser arrived from the
Rhine, and Beaulieu took his departure from the army at the
end of the month. It has been already stated, that 25,000 men
and large quantities of military stores were taken from the army
of the Rhine to equip a new army of Italy, and that Wurmser
was to take the command of the new force. This army was
brought together in the middle of July in the Tyrol. Its num-
ber has been estimated at 60,000 men, when Wurmser pushed
forward through the valley of the Adige and compelled Massena
to retire before him. On the SOth of July Massena encamped
between Rivoli and Castelnuovo, at which latter town Buona*

640 FIFTH PERIOD, — ^SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II*

parte's head-quarters were established. Wurmser on this occa*
sion committed the old Austrian mistake^ by pursuing the old
systematic method of attack ; he divided his army. He himself
at the head of 32^000 men, again variously subdivided, marched
through the valley of the Adige, whilst Quosdanowich was to
advance on the lake of Guarda and to burst into the plain at
Riva and Salo.

On the news of the approach of an army superior in number
to his own, Buonaparte suddenly relinquished the siege of
Mantua and voluntarily sacrificed 126 pieces of heavy artillery,
in order to decide the fate of the fortress in the field by a battle
with Wurmser, whom he hastened to meet. The whole of Buo-
naparte's forces were first directed against Quosdanowich, who
was in the neighbourhood of the lake of Guarda, and had occu*
pied Brescia. This movement lefl the road to Mantua open to
Wurmser, who marched directly thither and entered the city on
the 1st of August. The fortress was provided anew with every-
thing necessary for its maintenance and defence, but the right
moment had been neglected for giving assistance to Quosda-
nowich. The Austrian commander-in-chief was still in Mantua
on the 2nd of August; on this day, it is true, he sent a division
of his army to Castiglione, of which Quosdanowich was still in
possession on the 31st, but on the evening of the same day he
learned that the Austrians had been driven back at all points*
Quosdanowich in the meantime renewed the struggle on the
3rd, and from the 3rd a series of contests was carried on con-
tinuously with great bravery on both sides ; on the 3rd, at the
same time, a regular engagement was fought at Lonato and
Castiglione. In this battle the Austrians lost 3000 men and
30 pieces of cannon ; the chief loss however consisted in the
impossibility of Wurmser, who had crossed the Mincio after the
loss of the engagement, being able to form a junction with Quos-
danowich. The latter general was driven back on the 4th to
Riva, and Buonaparte was then enabled to turn with his whole
force against Wurmser, who had forced his way forward with his
25,000 men as far as CastigUone. The honour of the decisive
battle of Castiglione, fought on the 5th, is due to Augereau and
Massena ; 2000 Austrians were slain, 1000 taken prisoners, and
20 pieces of cannon captured ; Wurmser was obliged to retire
with the main body of his force to Valeggio, and to save his
right wing by a retreat to Peschiera* The camp which he here
formed was also taken by storm by Massena* Wurmser now

§ IV.] ITALY. 641

retreated to the Tyrol^ whither he was closely pursued by the
French ; in the Tyrol he again formed a junction with Quosda-^
nowich, and Buonaparte on his part again caused the fortress of
Mantua^ in which Wurmser had left a garrison of 15^000 men^
to be invested.

From the 7th of August the French were afterwards in the
Tyrol in the presence of the Austrians^ who had been largely
reinforced. Massena was at Rivoli, Augereau in Verona^ and
Vaubois on the lake of Guarda. Wurmser was so rapidly rein-
forced during the course of three weeks, that his army became
soon equal in number to that to which he was opposed. In
Austria the principles of government and generals are too con«
servative ever to give up any old custom ; the army was again
divided when preparing for a second attack on their enemies.
Davidowich was to march to Italy through Trent and Roveredo^
whilst Wurmser resolved to advance by the valley of the Brenta,
and to surprise the besieging army before Mantua. The French
did not wait till the latter arrived, but Massena attacked Davi-*
dowich in order to be able, in case of victory, to fall with safety
upon the rear of Wurmser's army in the valley of the Brenta.
Davidowich was defeated on the 4th of September at Boveredo,
and on the 5th driven to Neumarkt, and the French force was
thus enabled without risk to enter the valley of the Brenta in the
rear of Wurmser, with whom they came up on the 8th of Sep-
tember at Bassano. On this occasion, as the French boast with
reason, no regular engagement was fought, and yet Wurmser
was beaten, lost 2000 prisoners and SO pieces of cannon, and was
completely separated from Quosdanowich, who endeavoured to
find refuge in the Friule. Wurmser saved himself with 1 6,000 men
by retiring across the Brenta to Vicenza. He next hastened to
Mantua, opened a way for himself in several petty engagements
by means of his admirable cavalry, encamped at the lake before
Mantua, drew the garrison to himself, and resolved to hazard
another battle. This battle was fought near Fort St. George ;
Wurmser lost above 2000 men, and was only able with great
difficulty to make his escape over the ditch into the fortress.

The fiite of Italy was now completely bound up with the pos-
session of Mantua, which the French determined not to bom-
bard, but merely to keep closely invested, because since Wurmser
had thrown himself into the fortress an immense multitude of
persons were collected within the walls, of whom thousands were
ill in the hospitals. It was expected, and not without reason^

VOL. VI. 2 T

642 FIFTH PERIOD. — SECOND DIVISION. [CH. II.

that what the malaria of the lake and the marsh which sur-
rounds Mantua did not soon destroy^ would speedily be reduced
to extremities from want, as no preparations had or could have
been made for the sustenance of such an immense number of
persons. During the six weeks which Buonaparte spent in Lom-
bardy, after having frustrated both Wurmser's undertakings, he
laboured at the erection and establishment of a cispadane and
transpadane republic, which he pressed upon the attention and
approval of the directory, who were long averse to the plan.
The first step for the realization of this idea was, that the duke
of Modena, notwithstanding the millions which he had paid,
should be without further ceremony deprived of his territory
and the regency established by him abolished. The view with
which this course of violence was commenced by the general
clearly appears from his not only establishing the same kind of
provisional government in Modena as he had formerly done in
the three legations of Bologna, Reggio and Ferrara, wrested fiom
the pope, but he even united the deputies of the four places
just named into one assembly, as a preliminary to the legislative
body of the transpadane republic. In the meantime Austria
was equipping a new army to relieve Mantua ; she roused up
the pope and Naples, and entered into a secret alliance with
them. Naples made peace precisely at the right moment; the
pope however continued his military preparations, and thereby
furnished Buonaparte with the desired excuse, of more cruelly
harassing him afterwards and imposing upon him larger contri-
butions than before.

The Austrians in October collected about 50,000 men under
general Alvinzy in the Tyrol, and caused this army to advance
into Italy, in the same manner as Wurmser's corps had pre-
viously done. Davidowich was to march through Trent, and
Quosdanowich by Bassano. The two generals were then to form
a junction on the Adige, and Wurmser to support them by a
sally from Mantua. Davidowich was at first successful in his
operations. After numerous engagements, he drove general
Vaubois to Rivoli on the 7th, took from him 12 pieces of can-
non and 1200 prisoners, and compelled him to retreat to Castel-
nuovo. During this time Alvinzy with the main army had also
made his appearance at Bassano and Citadella. The French
fought there with success on the 6th of September; Buonaparte
however found it advisable, in order to be able to support Vau-
bois, to turn towards Verona, whither Alvinzy followed him. On

§ IV.] ITALY. 643

the 11th and 12th of November^ this general twice successfiiliy
repulsed the attacks of the French^ but waited in vain for Da-
vidowich^ who remained quietly in his position. On the three
successive days of the ISth^ 1 6th and 17th of November, Buo-
naparte put forth all his energies in the engagement, which was
as often renewed at Areola, and finally obtained a complete vic-
tory. The French say the Austrians lost fi^om 7000 to 8000
men ; this may be an exaggeration : the chief point however
is, that the expedition for the relief of Mantua was frustrated,
and Alvinzy's army on the one side driven behind the Brenta,
and on the other to the lake of Guarda.

The directory having attempted in vain to commence negotia-
tions for a peace by the mission of general Clarke, Austria, by the
most astonishing and praiseworthy efforts, succeeded in raising
a new army of 45,000 men at the commencement of January
1797* At the head of this army, Alvinzy once more, in two
columns as hitherto, advanced into Italy. On this occasion the
main army, under Alvinzy himself, followed the valley of the
Adige, whilst a division under Provera was despatched direct to
Mantua. Provera's force had arrived at the very suburb of St.
George, when it was surprised by Buonaparte, who had gained
a most splendid victory on the 13th and 14th of January at Ri-
voli and La Corona. Alvinzy's corps was nearly destroyed, and of
his 25,000 men only 10,000 remained, with whom he marched to
Roveredo. On this occasion 10,000 prisoners fell into the hands
of the French.

From the battle-field Buonaparte went in all haste to Mantua,
where Provera still was without the city at La Favorita. On the
night between the 15th and 16th of January Buonaparte and
Massena met, and as early as ten o^clock in the morning of the
16th, Provera, with 6700 men, laid down his arms. The imme-
diate consequence of this last almost unexampled victory was
the surrender of Mantua on the 2nd of February. Of 28,000
men who had been in this fortress, 7000 were dead, 6000 were
found in the hospitals, and 15,000 were taken prisoners of war.
Lannes and Victor were now sent against the pope, and the
latter had scarcely taken possession of Ancona, when the pope
on the 12th of February earnestly sued for peace. The peace
was concluded on the 20th in Tolentino. The pope ceded Avi-
gnon and Venaissin, Bologna, Ferrara and Romagna, agreed to
leave Ancona in the hands of the French during the war, paid
fifteen millions for the costs of the war, in addition to that which

644 FIFTH PERIOD. — 8BC0ND DIVISION. [CH.II*

he had promised at the truce, and delivered up a great many
valuable works of art. ^f

Buonaparte at length resolved to make an incursion through
the Friule into Austria. For this purpose he had been reinforced
bj two divisions of the army of the Rhine imder Delmas and
Bemadotte, and had long before sent Joubert to the Tyrol. The
archduke Charles, who now assumed the command, was scarcely
able to bring 20,000 men to the Tagliamento, under these melan-
choly circumstances, to oppose a much superior army of the
French. This army was compelled by the French to retreat on
the 16th of March at Valvaasone, but with very little loss; the
archduke however was closely pursued. On the one side the
French took possession of Triest and Idria, and on the other of
the lyrol, as far as the Brenner. It was fortunate for the arch-
duke that his strength increased as he approached Vienna, and
that he was able to avoid a decisive engagement till his army
again amounted to 40,000 men. The closeness of the pursuit
may be imagined from the circumstance that the archduke
Charles left Klagenfurth on the 29th of March, and Buonaparte
entered the same city as early as the SOth. Buonaparte however
found himself in an extremely critical situation ; he received in-
telligence that the whole of the Tyrol was in a state of insurrec-
tion against the French ; he knew nothing of Joubert's fate, whom
he had sent thither; Hungary and Croatia were threatening to
rise en masse against the invaders ; in Camiola, Carinthia, and
Styria, the people were hostile, the mountains pathless, and his
communications with Italy insecure ; he therefore wrote to the
archduke from St. Veit on the 3 Ist of March and offered reason-
able terms of peace. The archduke, on receipt of his letter, aent
generals Meerfeld and Bellegarde to him, and Buonaparte, who
had never heard anything of Joubert, concluded a truce on the
7th of April 1797? litnd on the 18th of the same month the pre-
liminaries of peace were signed at Leoben.

END OF VOL. VI.

Mated by Bichiid and John E. Taylor, Bed lion Ckwzt, fleet Street.

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